Postal

While Uwe Boll has garnered a reputation as one of the worst directors of all time, I can only surmise that those particular critics either have a very limited awareness of cinema (and clearly have not seen any films by Ulli Lommel...or Eli Roth), or are so embittered by their profession that they cannot see the insane, driven vision beneath the surface of the German mastermind's work. Those who have followed his career with masochistic pleasure have concluded that his current works have shown a legitimate upgrade in quality, and "Postal" is one of his most impressive films; while yet another loose take on a video game, Boll's proficiency with narrative structure (he co-wrote the script with Bryan C. Knight) has gotten better, as has his scene composition (few out-of-nowhere edits away from the action); and placed on the grounds of an absurd satire (a genre that many filmmakers bungle), Boll shows unfettered confidence and drive, even if the end result comes up short. Ditching the nauseating sitcom-structure that has turned Judd Apatow's films into crudely saccharine cinematic gold-mines, Boll goes for the subversive, anti-commercial jugular with "Postal"--he seems on a mission to top one offensive gag with one even more offensive, and the film (true to its title) is an onslaught of un-PC humor from start to finish. While I will say I laughed often at "Postal" and its politics (which echo the anti-consumerist diatribes that made "Fight Club" a cult classic), the comic timing is probably only spot-on about half the time; the remainder of the film's humor flows out of the absurdity of its premise: Dude (Zack Ward, the red-haired bully from "A Christmas Story") is an unemployed, lower-class guy having a bad day--in a pinch for cash, he and Uncle Dave (Dave Foley) concoct a plan to steal a shipment of Krotchy dolls from a Nazi-themed amusement park (run by Boll himself in a hilarious cameo); meanwhile, Osama bin Laden and the Taliban (camped out in the back of a convenience store, natch) are also converging on the coveted toy. Yet the plot is really just an excuse for Boll to let loose with a skewering of stereotypes, history, and blue-collar madness: while "Postal" could have merely been tasteless and humorless, its own sensitivity toward mankind's collectively repressed id shows a greater existential curiosity toward our "post-9/11" society than any Oscar-nominated tearjerker to come down the pike.