Postal and Seed

Shamble, like a zombie, down Memory Lane. The ghost of FF2007 awaits you.
AndyJWS
Undead Horde
Undead Horde
Posts: 480
Joined: Wed Aug 11, 2004 12:41 pm

Post by AndyJWS »

Don't know if even anyone who hated Postal could deny it's the funniest video-game-into-movie ever made, even including Street Fighter! I laughed my *rse off and liked the nice little references to the two games - Zach Ward also looked pretty impressively like the Postal Dude from Postal 2!

Seed - I'm not a fan of the subgenre (see mycomment about The Girl Next Door for how far this can go) but did actually appreciate this one. Partly the lack of forced entertainment value or "moral message", but also because it's the most grittily psychologically accurate view of a killer in a long time. This is very evident in the length of the hammer scene (although re-editing could still help for future release) where you can see Seed considering the hits and examining the effects of each one - he's experimenting. This experimentation is evident with the initial videotapes and may tie in with the PETA idea (got the feel there may be some deleted footage tieing the two together, as well as with the previous murders) although with it being tangential the PETA segment currently seems to be more to bring the audience down. And note the difference with the quick killings elsewhere - those are all done for functionality/revenge.
Very nicely shot, but there is one huge caveat - if Seed is to have any impact, there needs to be no sequel. As Joe Lynch said after Wrong Turn 2, a sequel should make you reassess the original, but in this case would be fated to undermine it. (Wanted to ask Dr Boll this but just missed him leaving)

Uwe Boll himself was a great guest, can only hope he carries on with films he's written himself though as they are so much better!
"There is no Good, there is no Evil... There is only flesh..."
Laymonite
Undead Horde
Undead Horde
Posts: 359
Joined: Tue Aug 17, 2004 2:19 pm
Location: London

Post by Laymonite »

I enjoyed the first half of Postal. Very funny and Dude was a good character. But once the actual plot started (after leaving Little Germany and arriving back home), it really started to drag and the laughs dried up.

Seed was a good film. I did laugh though at Seed walking around in broad daylight and the dream sequence where th cop goes "Look, it's the serial killer!". Can't talk about Seed without mentioning the hammer scene. Was pretty hard to watch until the lame cgi undermined it. Far be it from me to tell people how to react to anything but I couldn't see why it was applauded. And I don't understand why they didn't use their third attempt to electrocute him?
Bring her to me, you bum. I'll take care of business.
AdeBrown
Undead Horde
Undead Horde
Posts: 316
Joined: Thu Jun 23, 2005 7:58 pm
Location: London
Contact:

Post by AdeBrown »

If it failed again they'd have to let him go.
So they lied and said he was dead.
My livejournal Frightfest reports from days gone by (2004 to 2011)
http://surprisetruck.livejournal.com/tag/frightfest
Laymonite
Undead Horde
Undead Horde
Posts: 359
Joined: Tue Aug 17, 2004 2:19 pm
Location: London

Post by Laymonite »

But couldn't they have lied after the third attempt?
Bring her to me, you bum. I'll take care of business.
AdeBrown
Undead Horde
Undead Horde
Posts: 316
Joined: Thu Jun 23, 2005 7:58 pm
Location: London
Contact:

Post by AdeBrown »

They could but I expect they would have been under closer scrutiny - also it'd have slowed the film down ;)
My livejournal Frightfest reports from days gone by (2004 to 2011)
http://surprisetruck.livejournal.com/tag/frightfest
Sarah of the Dead
Running Zombie
Running Zombie
Posts: 145
Joined: Tue Aug 29, 2006 7:57 am

Post by Sarah of the Dead »

I was a bit confused by that; they flipped the switch twice on their second attempt, and I wasn't sure if that counted, but then decided not to worry about it. :)
[size=75][url=http://sarahhatesyourmovie.blogspot.com]Sarah Hates Your Movie[/url][/size]
Payne
Running Zombie
Running Zombie
Posts: 165
Joined: Tue Aug 02, 2005 12:12 am

Post by Payne »

Loved postal, thought seed was so-so, as for the hammer scene part of me thinks he only did it that way to get the film talked about, like the irreversable rape scene.

Oh, and of course it's always nice to almost get into a fight with somebody blinded by hatred after a film when all you really want is another beer
scrobble
Running Zombie
Running Zombie
Posts: 246
Joined: Sun May 21, 2006 2:54 pm
Location: Lake District

Post by scrobble »

I really enjoyed Boll's intro to both films, he's such an erudite guy who obviously doesn't give a rat's ass what people think of his movies - he's doing what he wants, and if you don't agree, that's your problem.

So, onto the movies...

Postal: I felt guilty laughing at a lot of the jokes, particularly the Auschwitz humour, but at the same time didn't laugh as hard at anything else during the weekend. Zack Ward was perfect as the lead, and my favourite part of the film was the job interview scene - although it's also refreshing to see small children gunned down (I've never understood why kids aren't considered 'fair game' as victims in most horror movies, it's not as if it's real life we're talking about!).

Seed: Hmm. Poor, derivative, pointless. I decided not to watch the animal torture scenes and wish I'd not bothered with the rest of the film either. The only real positive points for me were the tone of the film, which was very 'European/German' and reminded me of the atmosphere in films like 'Tattoo' and the scene where the first policeman met his death in Seed's cottage.

Low points were the piss-poor CGI hammer to the head scene - would have been better left out altogether, or prosthetics used, the prison governor and executioner's wooden acting, and the 'flashback' scene to Seed as a child trapped in the burning bus.
Sarah of the Dead
Running Zombie
Running Zombie
Posts: 145
Joined: Tue Aug 29, 2006 7:57 am

Post by Sarah of the Dead »

scrobble wrote:Ithe prison governor and executioner's wooden acting
Hahahahahaha! That reminds me - every time Andrew Jackson was on screen, I just wanted to laugh because all I could see in my head was him doing his quite terrifying Jack Nicholson impression in a hotel bar in Vancouver.
[size=75][url=http://sarahhatesyourmovie.blogspot.com]Sarah Hates Your Movie[/url][/size]
Laymonite
Undead Horde
Undead Horde
Posts: 359
Joined: Tue Aug 17, 2004 2:19 pm
Location: London

Post by Laymonite »

scrobble wrote:he's such an erudite guy who obviously doesn't give a rat's ass what people think of his movies - he's doing what he wants, and if you don't agree, that's your problem.
Actually I thought it was pretty clear he does care.
Bring her to me, you bum. I'll take care of business.
HeadOnAStick

Post by HeadOnAStick »

I thought Uwe was fascinating and quite charming. I had seen some of his previous movies and had never seen one I liked, but I think he was quite right to suggest that people seem to pick on him personally in a quite unjustified way.

As for the two films, I think both were the best I've seen him do but neither were stand-out successes. I did as he asked and rated both on IMDB in line with my conscience. Seed was pretty dark, especially the ending, but I found it too 'one-note' to really get involved in the story. Postal was too scattered for my taste and though I applaud the motivation behind it I suspect the people who will like it aren't the people who should be seeing the message from it. Also I'm not a huge fan of obscenity for obscenity's sake.
HeadOnAStick

Post by HeadOnAStick »

One thing that did come up today was trying to describe to someone what kind of film Postal is. I tried several different genres but none seemed to fit exactly so I've decided we need a word for a gory and obscene satirical riot.

And I have decided the word is 'splattire'.

Of course this may just be one of my symptoms.
Sarah of the Dead
Running Zombie
Running Zombie
Posts: 145
Joined: Tue Aug 29, 2006 7:57 am

Post by Sarah of the Dead »

:lol:

I actually like that.
[size=75][url=http://sarahhatesyourmovie.blogspot.com]Sarah Hates Your Movie[/url][/size]
streetrw
Frightfest Hardcore
Frightfest Hardcore
Posts: 1560
Joined: Sun Mar 27, 2005 5:54 pm
Location: A hell of my own making
Contact:

Post by streetrw »

Postal I absolutely loathed; I found it almost physically offensive. There didn't seem to be anything here beyond a desire to shock and upset.

That Boll is satirising America and Islam at the same time doesn't make any difference: it's not funny. I don't know how you can make comedy skits about 9/11 funny, and clearly Boll doesn't either. It feels like a Troma movie; not just in the look of the film, but the anything-for-a-cheap-laugh mentality. If satire is a scalpel, this is a chainsaw.

This board isn't the right place for discussing the politics and issues (gun control, urban deprivation, whether or not GWB is a warmongering moron) and I'm not going to start. The astoundingly poor quality of the script and the fact that none of the jokes are funny, that Boll is deliberately going out of his way to cause offense - these are reasons aplenty to attack the movie. It's like expressing your peace credentials by urinating on a war memorial. There are better ways to do it. As it is, Boll'd method of delivery undermines the message. It's a little like Fahrenheit 911 - any points Michael Moore makes tend to be ignored because it's that shouty fat man making them.

And one other thing that struck me about Postal - it may be 60 years but jokes about Dr Mengele, concentration camps and gas chambers?!?!?! Mel Brooks might - just might - be able to get away with some of these, but it's worth pointing out that Boll is German.


Now Seed, on the other hand, I thought was pretty good, except for the opening few minutes of entirely irrelevant animal cruelty footage. Because it has nothing to do with the rest of the movie, it's a purely gratuitous shock tactic and doesn't do the film as a whole any favours. In fact its removal would improve things considerably.

What I really liked about Seed was its look: there's very little colour, and the photography in the opening scene (in near total darkness) is pretty impressive. Seed himself seems to be a fairly generic homicidal maniac, except he seems more prolific than all the rest of them put together. 666 kills in 6 years?!?
Bearded Avenger
Undead Horde
Undead Horde
Posts: 491
Joined: Fri Apr 07, 2006 6:27 pm
Location: Addlestone, Surrey

Post by Bearded Avenger »

A query - who was the Twin Towers window cleaner? Can't think what his name is, but I'm sure it was a recognisable actor? Can't see him on IMDB.
Post Reply