Postal: Der Film

I appreciate three things about it: the music, the cat as a silencer, and the fact that Boll managed to make fun of himself. Other than that, it's his typical work, in which he created his own mess with his confused direction. Granted, he thought it out well enough, but the incorrectness is pretty cheap and the first half so frantic that I had to throw the remote away to keep from fast-forwarding or turning it off completely. It's pretty much saved by the final half hour, which is such a mixture of absurdity and absolute "WTF moments" that you'll wonder if it's intentional. It all culminates in the ending, which is simply from another dimension in terms of viewer experience. But you have to admit, it's entertaining. In the end, it gets a decent two stars from me, maybe also for the fact that Zack Ward is an absolutely likable guy and acts with a style in which he knows damn well what kind of film he’s in. He may very well be the only one on set. :) (18.09.2008)

It's nice that Boll understood that if he has to adapt Postal, then in a strongly satirical way. The problem is that he tries to mock everything, make a bloody action film, and even wink at the players. In doing so, he forgets that the twisted charm of the video game source material was in its freedom. The decision of whether to peacefully accomplish the given task or to use a cat as a shotgun and occasionally jokingly target Americans only enhanced the atmosphere. But here, this subtle teasing is taken to the extreme, thereby losing all entertainment value, not to mention Boll's seemingly likable but actually embarrassingly egotistical self-promotion. The only proper plus is Sammy Bin Laden and that is not enough. Some things simply weren't meant for the film. (04.07.2009)