Everyone has their opinion of Uwe. The man's made some horrible, horrible movies. But it seems like when he's working with his own material (i.e. not a video game) he can do some good work. Look no further than Postal (which, granted, is based on a game but is mostly original) to see that he is capable of doing good stuff that is criminally underrated just because he's Uwe Boll. I fear that may happen with Rampage as well.

The story itself isn't terribly in depth. It's basically just a frustrated young guy who's kind of a loser in the eyes of his small town who straps on a suit of full body armor, grabs some serious firepower, and mows down everyone he sees (mostly). I'd love to tell you that it's a serious look at the troubled mind of a small town guy who's pushed over the edge, but it's really not. It is, however, still quite good. Some people will probably get tired of a guy walking through town shooting random people, but I think it serves it's purpose to further the story and isn't completely mindless killing. What little story is there is pretty solid which is a hell of a lot more than you can say for a lot of Boll's work.

When all is said and done, I'd definitely recommend it.

RAMPAGE, possibly the best made of the Uwe Boll canon (although I'm far from having watched all of this notorious German director's movies),is a film that does exactly what it says on the tin - or the DVD case in this instance. It tells the story of a disaffected young man who finally snaps one day and goes on a gun-toting rampage in a storyline chillingly reminiscent of American newspaper headlines.

There's little character depth to the narrative despite attempts on the part of scriptwriter Boll to get into the head of his lead, and as a downside the production is padded out even though it comes up under length. The numerous flash-forward scenes early on in the film which reveal what's to come later on are just lazy and take away from the surprise and horror when it happens.

Saying that, the actual scenes of the rampage are very well achieved, starkly effective and frighteningly brutal with it. For this part of the film, Boll keeps his camera tricks and his subtext to a minimum, focusing instead on delivering the narrative through action. It's hard-hitting, well-shot and shocking with it. Not exactly a film you can enjoy, then, but one to be experienced instead. A sequel, RAMPAGE: CAPITAL PUNISHMENT, followed.

Having received much critical mauling over the years, I wouldn't have been at all surprised to see Uwe Boll eventually snap and go on a brutal killing spree ('House of the Dead was garbage was it?'... BLAM! BLAM! BLAM! Alone in the Dark sucked did it? BLAM! BLAM! BLAM! So Bloodrayne blew chunks, huh? BLAM! BLAM! BLAMMITY BLAM!

However, instead of taking to the streets with a gun blazing in each hand, the much-maligned director took an equally cathartic but somewhat less extreme path, committing his anger and frustration to film (admittedly, only after punching the living daylights out of some of his biggest critics in the boxing ring). The result of Boll's cinematic purging of the soul? Rampage—an explosively violent tale of a frustrated loser, Bill Williamson (Brendan Fletcher),who dresses himself from head to toe in home-made body armour and proceeds to lay waste to his hometown, shooting almost everyone who crosses his path.

For a guy who has regularly been named as 'the world's worst director', Boll's handling of his controversial material is surprisingly good, the use of wobbly camera-work and rapid editing for once working in a film's favour, delivering a sense of realism that effectively brings home the true horror of such a situation. With an excellent central performance from Fletcher, lots of merciless murder and mayhem, a cool twist ending, and even a touch of black-as-coal humour (the bingo scene is just brilliant),this film should go some way to vindicate its director who, it would seem, just needed the right project to prove his worth as a film-maker.