Tunnel Rats – Unrated Director’s Cut (2008/Vivendi DVD)
Picture: C Sound: C+ Extras: D Film: D
From 1978
to 1987, the peak of the cycle of films on the Vietnam debacle arrived, most of
which were poor, a few of which (Deer
Hunter, Full Metal Jacket, Apocalypse Now) are classics and some
that were not bad. Still, the same
mistakes were (purposely?) repeated in the early 21st Century by the
U.S. and doing a film on the subject now is missing the mark to say the
least. So how about an always angry,
talentless director of really bad features usually based on violent video games
trying to show… something resembling talent and doing a film like this over two
decades late? Yes, Uwe Boll is back and
this time, he gives us Tunnel Rats.
Proving
he is as bad as his reputation (he is the one who invites critics to get into a
boxing ring with him so he can punch them) is this wreck that never feels like
the conflict, has no grasp of the time or place or period (especially thanks to
the sloppy use of music), has performances that seem more like a bad 1980s film
or TV show and tries to make the conflict seem as simple as WWII when it was
not. It also makes the U.S. soldiers
look amazingly stupid and is somewhat racist with its title and could be more
so if it were not so confused… about everything.
Chris
Rolland and Daniel Clarke co-wrote the so-called screenplay and deserve some of
the discredit. The fact that Boll was
the only director they could hand off their work too shows how desperate they
were and the mostly unknown cast (save Michael Paré) seems more like they are
doing Aliens-lite. However, it is Boll who must once again take
most of the blame. Wow is this bad and
considering he desecrates a serious subject for the first time easily makes
this his worst film yet!
And if
its “little touch of torture porn” is not enough, know that you can go on line
and actually play a Video Game version of the film. No, I am not kidding. That is how trivializing this mess is. Insulting and stupid? It’s the Uwe Boll way!
The
anamorphically enhanced 2.35 X 1 image is much softer than expected (we did not
have the Blu-ray at posting time to compare) with some gutted color, Video
Black limits and detail issues like no other Vietnam film to date. The Dolby Digital 5.1 is limited and harsh
throughout, with the Dolby 2.0 being a slightly lesser version of the
same. Extras include useless deleted
scenes, on-camera Boll interview, lame Boll audio commentary and very obligatory
behind-the-scenes featurette. All add up
to a slap in the face of those who served in the actual Vietnam, plus anyone
who wastes their time watching it.
- Nicholas Sheffo
