Tunnel Rats Movie
Storyline
TAGLINES PLOT SUMMARY
During the Vietnam War [1959-1975] a special US combat unit is sent out to hunt and kill the Viet Cong soldiers in a man-to-man combat in the endless tunnels underneath the jungle of Vietnam. Suicide squads of a special kind.
| Michael Paré | Sergeant Vic Hollowborn |
| Scott Cooper | Private Joseph Walderson |
| Wilson Bethel | Corporal Dan Green |
| Adrian Collins | Private Dean Garraty |
| Mitch Eakins | Private Peter Harris |
| Erik Eidem | Private Carl Johnson |
| Brandon Fobbs | Private Samuel Graybridge |
| Scott Ly | Tran, Huy |
| Rocky Marquette | Private Terence Verano |
| Garikayi Mutambirwa | Private Jonathan Porterson |
| Nate Parker | Private Jim Lidford |
| Brad Schmidt | Sgt. Mike Heaney |
| Jeffrey Christopher Todd | Private Bob Miller |
| John Wynn | Nguyen Van Chien |
| Jane Le | Vo Mai |
| Uwe Boll |
4.40 out of 10 (705 votes)
Visitor Reviews
Outstanding Vietnam War movie
posted on 19 Aug 2009I will not spoil anything and just say the truth : This is an outstanding Vietnam war movies, and that for the following reasons : - Great acting, very "real", makes you feel you are right there in Vietnam with the soldiers - Great directing, especially in the tunnels, which feel very claustrophobic.In conclusion, a great war movie. Very personal as opposed to enormous with thousands of soldiers. I think BOLL just had really bad scripts and did what he could with them. With tunnel rats it was his own ideas that really came out and he did a great job.Please watch and then rate. Don't just think "Oh a stupid German director" and miss a great movie.
Awful bad movie
posted on 03 Aug 2009This has got to be one of the worst movies ever made. I'm not being prejudiced against the director. this movie just plain sucks. I know some of you like it because it has a lot of blood and gore and mangled bodies and lots of stuff gets blown up. If that's your cup of tea, go for it. But in this movie, this is what is missing: any kind of acting, any possible directing, anything resembling realistic jungle battle, intelligent dialog, story line and plot without holes galore, intelligent soldiers, and I could go on and on. This is not how war is. This is not how it was in Vietnam. This does not show any side of humanity. It's a jumbled up mess. A complete waste of time and money. Do not see this film. Time for the director to retire.
Not very pleasant, but *intense* !
posted on 01 Aug 2009Wow, this movie can not be described easily.While it is sometimes way too pathetic (american soldiers die too easily), at the very heart, this movie is breathtaking and really painful (due to it's statement) to watch. Between the scenes of war, dying and gore it works well with claustrophobia and the inevitable (you see your fate coming)... And while it gets down to a very personal level, it says so many things about humans, the desire to live, anger, desperation, motivation and war in general .....*Tech* One things that really blew my mind: the tunnel-scenes could have been done by anyone at (almost) no costs!! (Students around? Learn from that, no major explosions needed!) But yet, those scenes where among the most intense, the most unpleasant, painful, desperate and bloody scenes I have ever seen.*War and technology* Besides that, the tunnels and the jungle give a fairly well impression why no technology (so far) was a major help in such a fight - when it came down to man vs. man.....Resume: not your average good-night-movie! + In a movie-theater it soon becomes quite claustrophobic!!
Another sloppy mess.
posted on 22 Jul 2009This is one of the worst films ever done by the already talentless Dr. Boll. Now if this had some tongue-in-cheek humor or was meant to be a joke, well that would be one thing. Instead you are tortured w/ 90+ minutes of cliché ridden, over the top "action," absurd dialog, and one of the most pathetic endings ever put on film. Hopefully now that all of this tax breaks in Germany have been taken away from him, we won't have to put up w/any more of his drivel. However although he has no idea how to make a film, he sure does know how to get them made. How that is possible, I have no idea. This is as bad if not worse than anything he has ever done because it's supposed to be serious which makes it all the more laughable and embarrassing. Please do not waste your time w/this even though you can watch it free online if you have a Netflix membership, please don't let that fool you. This is bad in every part of the word especially the god-awful "ACTING" & the 3rd grade script which is about as nonexistent & filled w/nothingness as it can possibly be. Skip, Skip, Skip, at all costs please.
Boll has finally done it
posted on 16 Jul 2009It is very easy to hate on anything that Uwe Boll does, and it is clear that most people here are taking this path of least resistance and jumping that same wagon. However, it takes a greater person to admit when they were wrong and give credit when it is due, and it most certainly due. If one really wanted to, they could pick apart the historical accuracy of the film, or the tactics, or the costuming, or the geography; I am sure that such people could easily find some justification for condemning this film.On the other hand, what would follow would be a trite listing of errors and complaints, tarted up with clever comments and sealed with some witty remark. Is that what proper film critique is about? It doesn't take much in the way of intelligence to attack and destroy what you see before you. That is why people do it so easily and without thought. In a way, this film touches on that very human failing. So many film goers and critics (professional and armchair) are going to dismiss this film as if it is some plague carrier, and only because of the name that goes with it. I feel sorry for those people because they will miss out on a great many interesting and even inspiring film experiences in their life time.Tunnel Rats is one such experience. It is a small production and done very succinctly and without much extraneous posturing. From the first scene, the film gets right down to business and doesn't really let up until the gripping and downright mortifying ending. Perhaps it is the small size of the production that has kept Boll honest somewhat. I can imagine that when contracted to make Hollywood films, there is a lot of pressure to appeal to the attention deficit audiences out there, often the very ones that hate him, and therefore he aims too far above his mark.In this film he hits the mark very confidently and professionally. It is worth seeing this film, and doing so without preconception or judgment. Boll is just the director and a film is a sum of its parts, even though Boll directed this film, there were dozens of earnest and hardworking actors and crew members putting in their all to make this film. It is the hight of arrogance to laugh at their efforts and belittle what they made when truly there is nothing really wrong with it.I hope that enough people are see this film so that Boll can keep doing what he enjoys and sharing it with people. Every film, when made earnestly, has something worthwhile to show us. Stay free of the popularist hate for Uwe Boll and see films for what they are.
Never thought I'd comment a Boll-flick
posted on 26 Jun 2009First of all,i NEVER appreciated any of the work of German movie-maker Uwe Boll,although I cant say I seen all his work. But I have seen his "skills" in "house of the dead","alone in the dark" and the one with the vampire slayer chick.Now,after watching "Tunnel Rats",I cant help myself wondering if this guy really improved his skills significantly,or he got lucky?...maybe he wasn't even directing,but hired someone else??...Yeah,I sound silly,but its all because this film was a good little solid war story and it had no feel of a low-budget production. There are plenty of moments that made me get found of some characters,even Vietnamese,the action scenes are never over the top,almost all of it feels raw and real (if you know what I mean),and last,but not least,It made me think of the value of a mans life. And all this is saying much,if not TOO MUCH,for a Uwe Boll-written/directed film.If he would seriously think of stopping to do all of those video game based tasteless adaptations and focus on action/drama, maybe his future works will gain more audience.
Way too many Techinical errors!
posted on 24 Jun 2009Apart from being a terrible film with a bad script, bad acting and a bad storyline, this film had far too many errors.In the credits at the end of the movie it lists a Maarten Coatzee as the films Technical Adviser. Now the big question is, what exactly did he advise? The film had so many technical errors i felt like i was watching another amateur made Youtube movie!Now I've seen my share of bad Vietnam films, but this takes the cake!! M16-a2 and m655 carbine rifles being used by U.S soldiers, Woodland Cameo helmet covers, WW2 era uniforms, post Vietnam web gear, VC using Norinco Type 84S rifles instead of Ak-47s, VC soldiers with hairstyles like they just walked off the set of Tokyo drift, and to top it off, a military outpost built deep into the jungle with no perimeter wire, no field of fire, or guard tower to be seen. Its no wonder why they where over-run so easily. If you want to see a good story of Tunnel warfare in Nam, Watch the second episode of Tour of Duty titled "Notes from the Underground". For a TV show made 21 years ago, it sure does put this rubbish to shame. It really is sad that the Tunnel Rats of Cu Chi didn't get a better film. They sure deserve it.
Incredibly intense
posted on 31 May 2009Another unfortunate film meeting "we hate the director because the internet told us to" preconceptions, 1968 Tunnel Rats is a complete success in what it sets out to do - create an overwhelming sense of fear and claustrophobia.There are war movies, and there are horror movies. This is both. Yet, there is no Predator creature jumping around, no crazy virus, no hallucinations, no. The war is scary enough itself.There's no patriotic propaganda here, neither is there any political anti-war message, the movie just shows us how scary life as a soldier could be. This is the kind of fear which is felt by real people, every day.A highly recommended film if you like tension and suspense. More accessible than SEED, more mature than Alone in the Dark.
Not even close
posted on 21 May 2009This is probably one of the worst films on Nam I've ever seen. So unorganized and unprofessional that is the guys I served with acted that way none of us would have came home.I like Michael Pare's acting but not in this movie. The writer should have gotten his facts straight or at least talked to some real tunnel rats. Even a unit in the Army that served in Nam didn't act that way in Nam. Not that I ever saw, but my time was in the Marines and not a chance did a Marine unit ever act like this movie portrayed.zadziks from Antarctica gave it a 10, he has no clue or is getting royalties from the DVD sells.Pure waste of time.
Featuring the most inept squad in military history
posted on 13 May 2009I never went through boot camp. I've never been in the military. I've certainly never been sent overseas into a war zone.However, throughout this movie I found myself constantly wondering 'Why are they doing that?' For example: Though it makes for better lighting for the actor-- While crawling around in a tunnel, full of hidden enemies, it doesn't seem like it would take much training to know that shining your flashlight in your face instead of down the tunnel, just doesn't seem very smart.Not to mention using a flashlight without a red filter(to preserve night vision) seems doubly not that smart.Or soldiers who have fought tooth and nail to survive, only to stand like they are watching fireworks while bombs land on their heads.The only movie I can think of that features such inept soldiers is the last Hills Have Eyes 2 remake, but they were just in training, which is where this unit should have been left.
Fits Boll's resume just fine
posted on 07 May 2009I used to hate Uwe Boll. Like really despise. His films were some of the worst I have ever paid to see with BloodRayne, Alone in the Dark and House of the Dead couldn't even have all their score combined to get a full star out of this reviewer.As a person, Uwe Boll also repulsed me. In 2006 he challenged critics of his films to 'put up or shut up' and get into the boxing ring with him to defend their critiques.But then, I had a revelation. Why was it that I adored the offerings of one Roger Corman all these years when his films and Boll's are very similar in their results. Both filmmakers do their best with limited budgets and produce films that are so laughable that you can't help but look beyond the production values to find the entertainment in their product. In short, Corman and Boll both produce films that are un-watchable alone, but when enjoyed with friends, while having beers and yelling Mystery Science Theatre type comments at the screen, they can be fairly amusing. Tunnel Rats fits right into his resume along with Postal and In the Name of the King.Tunnel Rats is set during the Vietnam War and puts a bunch of expendable US soldiers in a position where they have to hunt the Viet Cong by exploring and hunting them in the various underground tunnels they have built under the forest battlefield.The tunnels are tight and dark, which does give a sense of claustrophobia, but doesn't give you a lot to look at on the screen. The lighting is so dense with nothing more than a flashlight to illuminate a scene that you find yourself straining at the screen. Let's face it, Uwe Boll films can give anyone a headache without having to squint for 90 minutes.So the film is pretty straight forward. One by one they go into the tunnel when the ones that went in prior don't come back out. And one by one they all face various deaths thanks to the assorted weapons at the hands of the Viet Cong which include knives, guns and a sharpened bamboo poll.Unlike most other Uwe Boll films, Tunnel Rats tries too hard to develop character amongst the actors in the platoon. Countless (endless!) minutes are spent learning about their backgrounds and their hopes and ambitions if they survive the craziness of the war.Unfortunately, character building is not Boll's strongpoint. Not that I know what his strongpoint is, but just having a group of soldiers sit around and jibber jabber about the things we have heard in any and all other Vietnam films produced since Oliver Stone's platoon induced yawns that were larger than the holes these soldiers were climbing down.There is some half descent violence. The bamboo stick through the neck was good and when the enemy circles in around the platoon in a wave of explosions and gunfire, there are some good dismemberments to keep you interested.But not enough.When it is over, if you watched it with others, I am sure that the comments uttered aloud during the screening will allow for some value. If you watched it alone, Boll owes you 90 minutes of your life back. Or at least a chance to take a swing at him in the boxing ring.www.killerreviews.com
The Raging Boll hits hard - again!
posted on 21 Apr 2009Uwe Bolls Tunnel Rats has just been released on R2UK, and of course I had to run down to the store and get a copy as fast as possible. When Seed came a lot of people was impressed - except the usual Bollbashers - but who cares about them nowadays? Seed was way more cynical than what we've seen from Uwe before, but still had some silliness because the absurd comic book-style killer.But with Tunnel Rats Uwe has abandon every kinda comedy, satire and tongue-in-cheek. Tunnel Rats is dead serious and works very well that way. It's a story about soldiers in the Vietnam-war that are going to clean up the underground tunnels that Viet Cong uses. Of course everything breaks into pure hell...Boll spends some time with the characters first. Let us know them - and let the actors do some impressive and naturalistic performances. It's not a pro-American movie... and not a pro-Vietnamese movie either. It's quite natural and shows the brutality at both forces. For once he injects some personality and motivation to the Viet Congs to, and as good performances as the American actors.It goes into horror-territory (almost) when the tunnels are introduced, but still keeps it realistic. The tunnels are small, because the Vietnamese is small, so it get's extra claustrophobic for the bigger built Americans. Above the ground there's some great action to, well worth a look for those - like me - who loves jungle action. Blood, squibs, limbs blown of, explosions and a nasty feeling of realism. There's no super-soldiers here. People just die.The Bollbashers would celebrate this movie if there was another name as a director, if Boll used an alias. They just hate it because it's Boll directing.I love his popcorn-flicks, but I love even more when he comes in to more darker territories and shows us what the world is about.The ending is dark and cynical, but probably more real than any other Vietnam-movie. Yeah, it's darker than in Seed. And it shows even more the total meaningless of war.
Not a Great Film by any Means
posted on 19 Apr 2009This film was based on true events and if the US soldiers were as badly trained and stupid as this outfit are portrayed, then it's a wonder they didn't lose the war sooner.For example,we see two soldiers standing over a hole while comrades are below and these two soldiers see the VC coming. Do they find cover from which to fight behind? Nope one stands up swinging a big machine gun one handed arnie style shouting at them. They have a camp in the middle of the jungle and the VC attack, right from the first tent. How on earth would they have gotten that close to a base camp? No fences or guards on duty that day? Please. Then the CO calls for immediate air support as they are being over-run, been over-run would have been more like it. The immediate air support didn't turn up until later when everybody had gone home, had they flown all the way from America? You felt absolutely no sympathy with the characters, we had just about every clichéd character you could think of except the chirpy cockney and the scouse scallywag. They tried to build backgrounds and personalities to the characters but failed miserably, maybe because it was done very lazily, ie having two actors discuss all the characters for our benefit while they eat. The conversation just doesn't seem real.It is a shame because the film started well and the scene in the tunnels involving the mother and kids was genuinely tense but it seemed so out of place with the rest of the film which was, badly acted to say the least. I seem to remember the excellent Tour of Duty TV series covering this subject in one episode and they managed to fit in more tension and understanding of these terrifying tunnels in a fifty minute programme than this film managed.I just kept thinking that 1968 Tunnel Rats was like a bad horror film where the goodies (in this case the tunnel rats)were being picked off one by one by the evil monster (the VC) in different and more nasty ways and the only mystery was who is the one that is going to survive? Is it the guy that believes God will protect him? The CO that is nasty to his men as a way of protecting them and preparing them for the nasties of war etc?
A blunt, brutal and uncompromising film about the horrors of the Vietnam War.
posted on 11 Apr 2009When controversial German director Uwe Boll (HOUSE OF THE DEAD) first announced that he wanted to shoot an absolutely uncompromising, blunt and brutal movie about the cruelties of the Vietnam War, not just a few critics shook their heads in disbelief and predicted a major failure on all levels as they just couldn't imagine that infamous filmmaker, who once knocked out four internet bashers in a boxing challenge, to tackle such a serious subject with the needed amount of tactfulness and sincerity. And I gotta admit that even though I'm quite a huge fan of Uwe Boll's work, I personally wasn't 100% sure either what to expect from a project like this...But now that I finally got my hands on a DVD of said film and ultimately got to see TUNNEL RATS (I missed the flick's short theatrical run here in Germany), I can say with a clear conscience that all those badmouths were once again a bit too fast with their criticism and concerns, cause apparently TUNNEL RATS turned out to be a pretty neat and well-done war movie, whose intensity and brutality will not leave you cold.The film, which is set in the jungle of Cu Chi in 1968, tells the tragic story of a group of young American soldiers lead by the hard-boiled Sgt. Hollowborn (Michael Pare) who get orders to explore and secure a complex tunnel system which the Vietcong use to move through the jungle without being heard or seen. As soon the GIs step down into the dark and narrow corridors, however, they gotta learn the hard way that their enemy is way more accustomed to the unusual surroundings and skilled in the antics of guerrilla warfare than they are and hence it doesn't take long until one GI after the other has to face a merciless death and the defeat of the whole platoon seems almost inevitable… In an early interview, Uwe Boll once said that one of his main intents for TUNNEL RATS was to show the absurdity and senselessness of war. Those guys who fight for their country with guns in their hands are all young, vital and full of hopes, dreams and ambitions. They got their whole lives ahead of them, but earlier than they've bargained for, they have to realize that in a game like this there's only losers but no winners. And when they're left to die all on their own a thousand miles away from home, they don't feel like heroes at all and pride and glory are about the last things that they think of… The whole pointlessness of war is a constant and reoccurring theme in TUNNEL RATS and just like war itself ain't exactly fun and enjoyment, this film is also far from being your typical good time bubblegum blockbuster… TUNNEL RATS is very slow-paced, very raw, very dirty, very brutal, very pessimistic… and very honest. It surely lacks the epic proportions of "big" war movies such as PLATOON, APOCALYPSE NOW and FULL METAL JACKET, but it makes up for this with sheer intensity and a great dose of suspense; the latter being mainly the product of Uwe Boll making really good use of the perilous environment throughout the whole course of the movie. No matter whether the GIs are marching through the thick green hell of the jungle or crawling through the claustrophobic constriction of the tunnels, you can't help but feel a constant uneasiness and uncomfortableness, which ultimately finds its climax in a devastating and truly shattering finale that you won't soon forget. Being more of light-hearted kind of guy, I have to say that I personally didn't enjoy TUNNEL RATS as much as I enjoyed Uwe Boll's action-packed, over-the-top no-brainers such as HOUSE OF THE DEAD, BLOODRAYNE and IN THE NAME OF THE KING, but this doesn't change the fact at all that TUNNEL RATS is still one of Uwe's most atmospheric and coherent films so far and definitely worth watching for all fans of unsparing war movies such as JOHN RAMBO and Co.
What a quality film that shows what this war was truly about.
posted on 22 Mar 2009Tunnel Rats, one the best Vietnam films ever made. While people are always willing to back Full Metal Jacket, Platoon, Apocalypse Now and others, this film really hits the mark. This film does not leave you feeling the need to throw out one liners with your friends over a couple of pints, it does not leave you believing they had some fun over in Vietnam like in Hamburger Hill when they go to the local massage parlour and get laid and drink beer (although Hamburger Hill does hit home), this film shows exactly what fighting that war was all about. Fighting an enemy you could not find and could certainly never beat. People have been shocked by how the film was made, but how better to get a real picture of what actually happened out there. Squeezing into a tunnel big enough for very small people and not being able to take proper defences with you, not being able to breath or move properly. This film is very much a political message and what a shame these films were not made earlier when the actual war was taking place. Maybe the anti-war protesters would have been more willing to give the war vets the credit they deserve for being drafted and made to do what it is they did. This film commands respect and no matter how awful the portrayal of killing is, or how awful the darkness of the film is, this is a complete truth of what was happening. Americans bombing their own at the end of the movie, reminiscent of Hamburger Hill and that film was acclaimed. My heart goes out to the people who fought in that war, the survivors and the dead. They fought because governments can't simply learn to live with their differences, or they can't just sit down and decide to have a poker game instead. No, they gamble with other people's lives and this leads to creative minded people like Uwe, who see a tort and do something about it, make films that show true depictions of what really happened no matter how bloody. In a couple of years there will be more films like this about the war on terror because G W wanted to line the pockets of his suit at the expense of young men and women because he can't tolerate other countries disagreeing with him. Well done Uwe, this film opens the mind and shows how ugly war truly is. Throw on some boxing gloves government leaders, or go fight the war yourselves.
If War is Hell, Boll is Satan
posted on 10 Mar 2009This movie is a squandered opportunity.Uwe Boll apparently thought the best way to make a statement about the pointlessness of war was by making a pointlessly long, wound-inducing, brutally ugly and disturbingly unoriginal genre film.Here, the director had a chance to redeem himself after a series of flops and turds. In Postal, at least, he showed some promise of not taking himself too seriously, and while the end result there wasn't exactly a good film, at least it was entertaining.But don't believe the hype.In Tunnel Rats, Boll is aiming for a serious, realistic movie. The film is marketed as being "for the fans of Apocalypse Now and Platoon", which by itself is a patently ridiculous and preposterous thing to say, coming from a film maker who has built his career on lowering the bar on genre films, from horror (Seed) and action (Bloodrayne) to comedy (Postal). By making a "war film", Boll has proved himself yet again as a completely derivative and wannabe director who is not concerned with either originality, artistic impact or entertainment value. What is good in this movie is stolen from other directors. What is bad in this movie is the result of bad imitation or skewed interpretation of the masters, combined with a lot of self-indulgent, amateurish drivel. To compare his works to those of Oliver Stone or Francis Coppola is an insult to the craft.Nor am I trying to be unduly harsh on the man. I don't care that he is a popular subject of internet ridicule. I only care about the fact that he makes bad movies, with the sort of inane persistence that is mind boggling. And to stay true to his vision, the last 50 minutes of this film are some of his worst yet. Bravo, Herr Boll: job well done.But let's start at the beginning. The movie opens up with some nice open angle shots, followed by scenes at and around the camp. The characters are introduced, some chatter is spewed back and forth, the setting is laid out in order to be upset by events to come. The characters are clichés, the dialogue is completely unoriginal. There are at least four or five variations of the theme of "I want to go home but we can't 'cos we're stuck here and war is hell." The movie is ridiculously excessive in its repetition of the message of "we're not in Kansas anymore, Toto". Emotions are shown without preparation or care, and we are left without any means of relating to these cardboard figures - shadows, as they are, of American stereotypes.From the first action scene on, and all the way through the laborious tunnel sequences throughout the film to the final scene, the movie shows signs of some of the worst pacing and cohesion in recent memory. The movie is about as chaotic as war, but that is not cinema verité: Uwe Boll simply happens to be the cinematic equivalent of a shell shock treatment. Maybe that's why this movie is seen by some to be authentic in its demented convolutions, because they think that Boll has created some postmodern masterpiece here. But what they mistake for craft is simply Boll's inability to make a coherent narrative last more than 10 minutes. And because war is all about brutal ugliness, Uwe Boll just naturally happens to have the inherent lack of vision, honesty and skills to drive that point home involuntarily. Boll IS war.Uwe Boll is the worst enemy to his own movies. He is like the Viet Cong digging tunnels underneath the movie crew's feet, or more like a saboteur within. After he is done, little remains of a salvageable movie. He snips out all developments, abandons all his characters, fails to release tension that he builds up unnecessarily, meanders like a schizophrenic tunnel rat in a maze, throws random scenes at the viewer in a barrage of images that might as well have been edited together using an aleatory computer program or an astrological chart... and finally, he repeats and repeats and repeats the same stupid mistakes of his earlier movies as if self-criticism and self-learning were signs of weakness. The latter half of the movie is an irredeemable catastrophe, as if even the editor gave up on this movie after the midpoint. There is such a lack of love here that one wonders if it's not done on purpose in some cruel, twisted joke.This is certainly not Uwe Boll's worst movie. At least Seed, Alone in the Dark and House of the Dead are even more disturbingly amateurish. But what makes Tunnel Rats perhaps more distressing than those previous stinkers is its subject matter: war. The film is so dark, gray, boring, claustrophobic and ugly that it's perhaps his least entertaining movie yet. And it certainly fails as a message movie, because it has no intellectual honesty or artistic merit to speak of. So who is it for? What's the point? I really don't know... The film is a completely dishonest hack job, a failure in its own terms, and a complete humour failure to boot.This movie is ugly, meandering, brutal, pointless and painfully long.Yes, in that regard, it is an apt representation of Vietnam.Thank god we're not in Vietnam anymore, Toto.
Like the tunnels in the film, the film is an ambush on the audience in the sense Boll takes us all by surprise.
posted on 06 Mar 2009What am I supposed to say about a war film made by Uwe Boll? I know the man by reputation alone and this is my first venture into his film-making domain. It seems he's brought about quite an aura for horrifically bad films, and yet there I was watching Tunnel Rats and genuinely thinking it was a good effort. Am I supposed to sit here and say it's a horrid, pointless mess of fast edits and nonsensical action running on a paper thin script complete with horrid acting? Should that sort of summary be synonymous with a Uwe Boll war film? Well surprise, surprise Tunnel Rats is actually a damn fine effort and it proves people are willing to jump on certain critical bandwagons just as easily as people are willing to jump on positive bandwagons.The film succeeds in the sense it captures the madness of war as well as delivering scenes of strong, bloody violence that repulses more than it does excite as these various action set-pieces and scenarios play out. Hey, this is more than what the recent Rambo film offered when all we got was a plethora of gore and disembowelment as 'justified' warfare was played out between those poor, poor Christians and those evil, evil Burmese soldiers. The primary content and the 'tunnel rats' of the title refers to soldiers whom engage in activity you feel you'd have to be mad to partake in; an activity that is not about capturing or defending terrain; or searching out an individual alá Apocalypse Now or Saving Private Ryan, but about clearing Vietcong tunnels located beneath the battlefields.The Tunnel Rats of the title are three jeep loads of soldiers assigned to the Củ Chi tunnel complex, Vietnam, in 1968. Their task is to clear out the tunnels surrounding their base camp – traps, enemies and all. The platoon are made up of all sorts; these are not just faceless characters called in to spawn some bloody violence/action as they 'blow some stuff up real good' for the benefit of a passive audience. Some are white, some are black; some are younger than others; some are innocent, naive and soft-bodied whereas some others feel the need to stamp authority within the group. Some even share certain religious beliefs that others do not subscribe to.There are some points in which you want the characters whom are down in those tunnels out and 'safe' as soon as possible, then there are others during which you want them down there and 'safe' as potential danger approaches on the surface. Other times, soldiers survive the ordeal of the tunnels only to emerge and face new horrors. Boll toys with the audience in this regard, using each respective 'space' as both a safe haven and a potential death trap at various times to really good effect.The team assigned to deal with this tunnel network share some thoughts and memories from childhood the night before they ship out to begin work. We know the tunnels are a dingy and claustrophobic space on top of a dangerous locale thanks to the opening scene. Further talk of the tunnels being death traps plays out with some characters speculating the dangers through past stories and rumour as well as how the Vietcong can 'smell' you. This makes the scenes later on when a character lights up a cigarette down there even more harrowing. The talk of the tunnels further prolongs anxiety, as the brief but memorable opening scene floats in and around our memory. The tunnels, however, remain off screen and we know what awaits the group, giving us a position of power – a position of power that is further emphasised when we witness entire scenes dedicated to the Vietcong, the American's enemy, one occurrence of which sees the camera crane directly below a Tunnel Rat to reveal a makeshift Vietcong war room.Initially, the first tunnel is a bit of a disaster. It is a dead end and while eliminating two of the enemy, they loose three guys. The sense of failure and frustration at such a cost for so little is clearly evident, very briefly creating a helpless and desperate atmosphere in the film and in our own minds about the situation. Boll captures the horror and the cramped conditions of the tunnels perfectly. Shooting in low light and keeping his camera rock steady as his subject scurries and struggles about erratically, we feel frightened when people venture into the unknown and horrified when altercation with the enemy arises.Boll even finds room to develop scenarios within the already established conventions by including the character of Vo Mai (Jane Le) as this frightened Vietnamese woman who lives within the tunnels with her two young children. The award winning Jane Le does a great job in portraying the fear and madness of it all. The final thirty minutes or so are pure, gripping, impressive war genre cinema. I didn't notice it beforehand, but there is a certain electronic pulsating sound effect/musical number that plays on a loop during this time, which really captures the horror and the suspense you're witnessing as people scrap for their lives – it's fascinating to watch.Whereas Michael Bay can just fetishise action and gunfire with copious amounts of explosions and slow motion towards the end of Transformers as that becomes even more empty headed; vacuous and nonsensical than it already was, and Stallone can offer nothing bar mere break-neck action as the baddies get their comeuppance toward the conclusion of Rambo IV, Boll shows us that war is, in fact, Hell and war-zones are places you really don't ever want to be. The two respective films have high IMDb ratings close to '7'; Tunnel Rats has something bordering on '4' – looks like that Boll-hate bandwagon is in full runaway mode, whereas the Stallone/Bay-love bandwagon is on an equally slick streak. How sad.
Liked the acting hated the director and writer.
posted on 18 Feb 2009I liked it, the quality the acting the sound all good, but who wants too watch a movie where almost everyone dies in the end, death death death the entire movie, killing off almost the entire cast is dumb. I know that war is 90% of what just happened but the point of a movie is too show entertaining and vivid clips, if we wanted too see something like this we would watch a history documentary. Just like Steven Kings The Mist everyone dies in the end, its pointless good acting, good plot just a good movie but directed like crap, doesn't leave much room for a part two, and 95% of part 2 movies with none of the original cast in it blows "Starship Troopers 2 for example"
for younger generations to understand Vietnam
posted on 31 Jan 2009As an avid war movies fan, I was stunned by this down-to-earth story. I would recommend this one instead of watching boring documentaries. It is a great lesson in story-telling as well...the simple truth is the ultimate scenario. The title itself does prepare us for this journey from human to animal. Never in the movie does the animal part become surreal, just plain realistic, which sets is apart. I would go so far as to say it took the opposite road from "Apocalypse Now", no lyricism and theatrics. Isn't that the ultimate "tour de force" in movie-making ? To be able to tell a story, so visually that you feel the action, but even in black & white picture and stereo sound, it would be as powerful... The director is definitely to be reckoned with, I am now quite intrigued by his filmography.
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Not great by any means, but nowhere near as bad as its reputation would indicate
posted on 27 Aug 2009I happened on this movie without knowing much about it, and without knowing much about the notorious director (I don't normally watch the type of films he makes).Upon watching the movie, I have to say that it appears to be receiving a lot of spillover hate from his other, more schlocky productions. While not really excellent, you could very easily find a lot of well received war movies that are much worse.Beyond crowd-following hate of director Boll, the film fails to receive any love mainly because it is just flawed enough to alienate those specific and particular constituencies; "serious" film buffs, and war film fans, that such a film would normally draw. The film is grim enough to fit into the antiwar genre, but gory enough to vex those who favor a "serious" film style. The characterization is too favorable to the Vietnamese to lure the jingoistic, but too trite and conventional to draw in the aspirationally sophisticated.Straightforward war film devotees also tend to be very particular about technical details and accuracy, and while most shots look okay by Hollywood standards, many details will irritate the purist. Some of this is likely due to simple lack of funding; the campsite so different from a Vietnam War era firebase for example, but many details; the Palestinian/Arab neck-scarves instead of Vietnamese ones (the real thing is readily available on Ebay) for example, to mention a flaw not yet noted on IMDb, seem like carelessness.Despite the many flaws however, the overall effect is not nearly as bad as to justify spoof awards, and some of (not all!!!) the acting is actually rather good.At any rate, even if mainstream film goers don't favor this production, collectors of silly and flawed scenes might be interested to note this film as containing, in one (or perhaps more, depending on where you draw the line) of the lessor scenes, a portrayal of Americans/Westerners as can't-hit-a-thing cannon fodder, easily gunned down. Perhaps only so hackneyed a director as Uwe Boll could not only set aside this stereotypical portrayal, but could actually reverse it!