Gamertell

Normally, we here at Cut/Scenes tolerate and/or ignore the antics of one Uwe Boll, director of terrible game movies (several of which have appeared in our lame game movie nights). We figure the man gets enough publicity for his various stunts (making terrible movies, boxing his fans), and he certainly doesn’t need our help.

But this week, Boll made some new headlines, and we felt the obligation to take a closer-than-usual look at his antics. First, he made the claim that if a million people signed a petition, he would stop making movies. Gamers everywhere (well, all over the internet) rallied together and signed. Then, he pulled a diva-caliber hissy fit and boomed on about his genius – telling MovieSet that his new film Postal (due out May 23, 2008) will be leagues beyond “all that social critic George Clooney bull***t what you get every f**king weekend.”

But that’s not all. He actually ended with “You have to really wake up and you have to see me what I am… I am the only genius in the whole f**king business. Goodbye”

Free publicity? Sure. Boll certainly knows how to get attention. But we’re sensing a bit more than the usual devil-may-care attitude from this particular incident. Could it be that the crazed director actually regards his latest work as an actual, legitimate masterpiece?

He’s treated his previous films more or less like the schlock that they are. In an interview on Red Eye reported by Destructoid he talked about House of the Dead flippantly, stating “what were you expecting, Schindler’s List? I showed zombies chasing people and this is basically what the movie delivers. I don’t know what they were expecting if you make a movie based on an ego shooter where you kill ninety minutes of people non-stop.”

He’s always come across as a guy who knows his place in the grand scheme of the film industry, a sort of successful Ed Wood, purveyor of adolescent fantasy and shoddy horror films. Really, an exploitation filmmaker. He’s never had any real qualms about his movies and has been pretty honest with the press about them. This is why his pretentious, bombastic claims that Postal will be the cinematic second coming are so surprising.

It was bad enough when he claimed that the movie would be able to compete against upcoming Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, and will hence be opening on the same weekend (sure to be a big one for the entertainment industry). But now he’s claiming that this movie is a work of genius? Really?

Whatever his motivation, It’s working. We’re feeling a strange (maybe even sick?) compulsion to watch this film. Uwe, you’re smarter than anyone gives you credit for, but not in the way you think you are.

Read [Kotaku]

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