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Postal: Unrated
R1 - America - Vivendi Review written by and copyright: Jeremiah Chin (30th September 2008). |
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The Film
 There is a fairly large gap between what could be considered actual ‘shock comedy’ and comedy that just tries to be edgy while actually comes off as plain annoying. Much of what separates the two is the idea behind the comedy, where shock comedy is more about pushing a taboo to the point of breaking for the sake of testing social norms (and trying for a few nervous laughs along the way), pretentiously ‘edgy’ comedy on the other hand points out things that are taboo and hopes for praise and respect because of it. Uwe Boll’s recent release “Postal”, which he proclaims as the greatest movie ever made, falls far into the arena of pretentiously edgy comedy where Boll tries to go toward the edge just for the sake of attention and doesn’t get any laughs along the way. Vaguely based on the video game series of the same name, “Postal” follows The Postal Dude (Zach Ward) who lives out an unhappy and unpleasant life in a trailer park in a town named Paradise. One day he endures a series of frustrating events such as finding his morbidly obese wife cheating on him with the entire town, waiting in line at the welfare office and accidently shooting a guy. The Postal Dude joins in with his relative Uncle Dave (Dave Foley), a local cult leader, in hatching a scheme to steal thousands of super-popular Krotchy toys to sell on the black market. Of course between Uncle Dave, Postal Dude and success lies the Taliban, newly relocated in this small town hiding in the back of a mini-mart. Osama Bin Laden (Larry Thomas) has hatched a similar plan to steal Krotchy toys, causing a battle between new-age cult and Taliban with the Postal Dude caught in the middle. Much of the controversy surrounding the film is self generated, or controversy for the sake of being controversial or gaining attention, helping “Postal” realize itself as a pretentiously edgy attempt at comedy. Much of the stabs at humor fall entirely flat, making them just annoying or offensive rather than trying to push the audience into a place of questioning. The use of stereotypes in trying for comedy just doesn’t work, likely through some combination of Boll not fully grasping what he’s trying to do, not recognizing how to turn stereotype into comedy, or simply not caring either way. Even if you try to ignore the attempts at comedy at just being a different taste, the script just falls apart. There’s nothing really holding the script together other than a series of expendable plot devices that just move from one harebrained idea to another and dropping anything else. While Boll is typically known for hiring fairly large named actors into terrible films, the major actors in the film are largely off the radar. Zach Ward had a role in the short lived series "Titus" (2000-2002), or more memorably (for me) as Jack’s best man in “Lost” (2004-Present) and he’s not even necessarily a bad actor, there’s just nothing for him to do here. Dave Foley, who did great work with “Kids in the Hall” (1988-1994) is the supporting lead in the film who spends most of his time womanizing or smoking pot, but is equally terrible in this film. Even Boll makes an appearance as himself, who sets the bar incredibly low with his horrendous acting to add to the poorly written and directed film. In the end, “Postal” is an outstanding display of Boll’s arrogance, which I’m beginning to see as more of ignorance. The way he takes pride in the terrible quality of his films honestly doesn’t understand why his films are bad or how to make them better. Even the DVD cover proudly displays “Disgusting. Offensive. Stupid.” Showing how Boll’s attempt to feed off the hostility towards his films has simply driven him further away from crafting something resembling a decent movie.
Video
“Postal” is presented in 1.75:1 anamorphic widescreen aspect ratio, and the transfer is okay. The original quality of the video isn’t too great and it shows a bit on the transfer, but the there’s no huge problems that interrupt the movie. Much of the transfer works out well, everything is visible and clean, though not worth watching.
Audio
There are audio tracks in both English Dolby Digital 5.1 and English Dolby Digital 2.0 stereo. The audio track has an off quality to it, some lines were very obviously dubbed over in post production and stand out from other lines of audio in the film. Overall the audio track has an almost tinny quality to it, but the levels are otherwise okay and there’s no pops in the audio, but the transfer just doesn’t feel right. There are no optional subtitles available at all.
Extras
The 2-disc set has a few special features including an audio commentary, three featurettes, some theatrical trailers and a video game. Below is a closer look. DISC ONE: First up is the audio commentary by director Uwe Boll. First in terms of quality, the recording sounds as if it was done with a really low quality microphone in a public bathroom that seems to echo and the level is far below that of anything else on the disc making it necessary to blast the volume just to make Boll audible. There are some funny insights in the commentary like the fact that “Postal” is the movie even Rob Schneider wouldn’t accept, Boll spends a fair amount of time also ranting against advertising and corporate Hollywood. There are a few points where Boll’s phone rings and he just picks it up and starts talking to whoever else is on the line. Maybe his most memorable quote from the commentary: “This movie is full of courage.” “Raging Boll: The Director Boxes His Critics” featurette which runs for 14 minutes and 2 seconds, featuring the famous boxing matches between Boll and his internet critics like Richard ‘Lowtax’ Kyanka of somethingawful.com. It’s an incredibly Boll-esque decision to just confront his critics with a physical boxing match. Boll is covered head to toe with advertisements and celebrates after every punch he lands successfully, taking his time to gloat over those who demeaned his movies. It’s good that he actually included this featurette on the disc, just to see how cocky Boll is, but not worth checking out the entire set for. Maybe this review will get me in to one of his next matches so I should start preparing. “Verne Troyer Clip” featurette runs for 14 seconds, Troyer declares that “Postal” is better than “Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull” since both films were released on the same day. “Behind the Scenes” runs for 9 minutes and 10 seconds. This featurette takes a look at all the scenery, sets and some filming set in the Little Germany theme park from the film, all set to some German-sounding music without any comments or voice over to talk about what is going on. Also included is the theatrical trailer for “Postal” which runs for 1 minute and 35 seconds. Startup bonus trailers on the disc include: - “Dick: The Devil Made Me Do It” runs for 1 minute and 40 seconds. - “Seed” runs for 1 minute and 31 seconds. DISC TWO: The second disc is just a copy of "Postal 2", the video game which the film was vaguely based on. Definitely not a bad idea to include the games with the films on DVD, more reasonable especially for “Postal” since the game and the film actually have something to do with each other.
Overall
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