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Postal (film)
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Postal is a 2007 satirical comedy/action film co-written and directed by Uwe Boll.
Like the majority of Boll's previous films, Postal is a film adaptation of a video game, this time Running With Scissors' controversial Postal, though the film draws more heavily from its sequel, Postal 2.
film takes place in the town of Paradise, Arizona, where a volatile young Dude (Zack Ward), after being mocked at a job interview, kicked out of his local unemployment office and discovering that his morbidly obese wife is cheating on him, is more than a little angry and is desperate to get enough cash to finally leave his dead-end town.
He decides to team up with his Uncle Dave (Dave Foley), a slovenly con artist turned doomsday cult leader who owes the US government over a million dollars in back-taxes.
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Encyclopedia
Postal is a 2007 satirical comedy/action film co-written and directed by Uwe Boll.
Like the majority of Boll's previous films, Postal is a film adaptation of a video game, this time Running With Scissors' controversial Postal, though the film draws more heavily from its sequel, Postal 2.
Plot
The film takes place in the town of Paradise, Arizona, where a volatile young Dude (Zack Ward), after being mocked at a job interview, kicked out of his local unemployment office and discovering that his morbidly obese wife is cheating on him, is more than a little angry and is desperate to get enough cash to finally leave his dead-end town.
He decides to team up with his Uncle Dave (Dave Foley), a slovenly con artist turned doomsday cult leader who owes the US government over a million dollars in back-taxes. With the help of Uncle Dave's right hand man Richie (Chris Coppola) and an army of big-breasted, scantily clad cult members, the Dude devises a plan to hijack a shipment of 2000 Krotchy Dolls, a rare, sought-after plush toy resembling a giant scrotum. Uncle Dave plans to sell them online, where their prices have reached as high as $4,000 a doll.
Unbeknownst to them, Osama bin Laden (Larry Thomas) and his group of Al-Qaeda terrorists, who had been secretly hiding in Paradise since September 11, under the watchful eye of bin Laden's best friend George W. Bush (Brent Mendenhall), are after the same shipment, but for entirely different reasons. Hoping to outdo the catastrophe of 9/11, they plan to instill the dolls with Avian influenza and distribute them to unsuspecting American children.
The two groups meet at the shipment's destination, Nazi-themed amusement park Little Germany. A fight between Postal creator Vince Desiderio and Postal director and park owner Uwe Boll (which ends with Boll being shot in the genitals, confessing "I hate video games"), sparks a massive shootout between the cult, the terrorists and the police, resulting in the death of dozens of innocent children. The Dude and the cult are able to get away with both the shipment and the park's opening day guest Verne Troyer, pursued by Al-Qaeda, the police and a mob of angry citizens.
Upon returning to their compound, which has been overtaken by the terrorists, the Dude, Uncle Dave and the rest covertly sneak into the compound's underground bunker, where Richie reveals that he has must now fulfill the prophecy foretold in Uncle Dave's fictional Bible: to bring about the extinction of the human race. As per Uncle Dave's Bible, the event initiating the apocalypse is the rape of a "tiny entertainer" by a thousand monkeys. After Verne Troyer is quickly thrown into a pit of chimpanzees, Richie shoots and kills Uncle Dave, then imprisons the Dude.
The Dude manages to escape the compound with a plethora of weapons, deciding to wage a one-man war against Al-Qaeda, his uncle's murderer, his cheating wife, the police and the many people who want him dead. On the way to his trailer (where he plans to blow up his spouse), he meets up with an attractive young barista, Faith (Jackie Tohn), who joins forces with him after an explosive gunfight. After The Dude's heartfelt, but futile monologue about war, the two of them then proceed to kill all the terrorists, all the bloodthirsty townspeople, the remains of the now-mad cult, his wife, and her multiple lovers. In the midst of the shootout, Osama bin Laden escapes to a payphone, where he calls George Bush for help. Bush sends a helicopter to save him and plans for the two to rendezvous.
Having won their war, the Dude, his dog and the barista drive away in a stolen police car. They casually turn on the radio, only to learn that Bush has blamed the day's shootouts and explosions on China and India, and has been "forced to destroy both countries with nuclear force". China, in retaliation, has unleashed thirty nuclear missiles towards America, which are scheduled to hit in under two minutes. The three drive off into an uncertain future.
The film's final shot features President Bush and Osama bin Laden skipping through a field together, hand-in-hand. As mushroom clouds explode on the horizon, Osama laughs and says, "Georgie, I think this is the beginning of a beautiful friendship".
Cast
Production
According to Uwe Boll, the German fan club for Postal contacted him, offering the possibility of the game being adapted into a film. Intrigued by the game's premise and blatant political incorrectness, Boll contacted Running With Scissors, Inc. president Vince Desiderio, who sold him the rights under the condition that he would be involved with the script and the production. Supposedly, Desiderio and Postal 2 director Steve Wik pitched a much grittier, darker version of the Postal story, but Boll rejected it, fully intent on turning it into a comedy in order to use the film as a platform for political satire as well as "revenge" against the people who have protested his movies. Boll ended up writing the script with assistant director Bryan C. Knight, who had worked on all of Boll's previous video game adaptations.
Postal filmed from September 13, 2006 to October 30, 2006 in Cloverdale and Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.
Release and box office performance
Worldwide release
The 114-minute director’s cut of Postal premiered at Montreal's Fantasia Festival on July 21, 2007. The film made its way along several more United States and European film festivals until finally receiving a limited release in Germany on October 18. It opened at number 27 in the German box office, taking in $17,279,353 from 48 screens and banked $7,142,761 in its entire run. In Italy it ended its box office run after two weeks with $3,980. As of August 31, 2008, it has grossed a total of $ 38,235,198 worldwide.
American release
Despite Boll’s announcement that Postal would be given a wide release on October 12, 2007., it was delayed until May 23, 2008. Additionally, on May 16, theatre distributors pulled out of their deal for a wide release of 1500 screens to a limited release of only four screens. Said Boll of the change:
Theatrical distributors are boycotting Postal because of its political content. We were prepared to open on 1500 screens all across America on May 23rd. Any multiplex in the U.S. should have space for us, but they're afraid... We have even tried to buy a few screens in New York and Los Angeles, and they won't let us even rent the theaters! I urge independent exhibitors to contact us and book 'Postal'! Audiences have been expecting the film and I don't think exhibitors should censor what gets played in U.S. theaters.
On May 20, the screen count increased to 12 screens. By the time of the film's release, it had grown to twenty-one.
Postal opened one day after Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, which led to Boll heavily (jokingly) announcing that his film would "destroy" Indy at the box office. A number of internet promos were made featuring Verne Troyer dressed as Indiana Jones, proclaiming Postals superiority.
DVD release
Postal received its North American DVD release on August 26, 2008, in both unrated and rated versions, as well as an unrated Blu-ray release. Both versions feature the film's trailer, a promotional spot featuring Verne Troyer's Indiana Jones, a featurette detailing the filming of the Little Germany scene, footage of Boll's infamous boxing matches and audio commentary by Boll. Some editions come with the full version of Postal 2 (Share the Pain edition) on a bonus CD.
The directors cut was released September 26th 2008 in Germany. A slightly longer directors cut was released only on Blu-ray November 25th and on DVD in North America January 6th 2009. .
Critical reception and awards
Reception from professional critics was generally negative: as of November 2008, the review site Rotten Tomatoes reported that 8% of critics gave the film positive reviews, based on 37 reviews. Postal holds an IMDb rating of 4/10, the highest rated of Boll's video game adaptations and his second highest rated movie overall (behind the original drama Heart of America, which holds 4.1/10).
Response from the Internet community, however, has ranged from lukewarm to extremely positive, with some calling it Boll's best film. Positive reviews have stemmed from such notable websites as G4, UGO, Film Threat, JoBlo.com and MTV. Additionally, some previous detractors of Boll’s work have recanted their opinions of the director after seeing Postal.
The film was nominated for three Golden Raspberry Awards: Worst Supporting Actor (Boll as himself), Worst Supporting Actor (Troyer as himself), and Worst Director (Boll). Despite critical condemnation, Postal won two awards at the Hoboken International Film Festival: Best Director and the festival's top prize, Best of Festival.
Similarities to game
Unlike Boll’s previous film adaptations of video games (i.e. BloodRayne, Alone in the Dark), which bore little resemblance to their original source, Postal is notable for being rather faithful to the work it's based on, 2003's Postal 2, in both style, humor and tone (this may be attributed to the fact Running With Scissors, Inc. were involved with the production):
- Both film and game follow the adventures of an unemployed man who lives in a trailer in Paradise, Arizona, with his nagging wife and dog Champ, as he’s driven to violent extremes ("going postal") trying to cope with a town full of angry citizens, corrupt cops and Al-Qaeda terrorists.
- The character of "Uncle Dave", The Postal Dude's cult leader/scam artist uncle.
- The use of a live cat for a silencer. In the game, the cat dies after a few shots. In the movie, the cat is unharmed.
- Random shootouts and acts of violence occur, similar to the way the AI characters work in the game.
- The appearance of "Krotchy" dolls, a popular scrotum-shaped children's toy that serves as a main point of the plot.
- Vince Desiderio,
Postals developer, appears as himself, expressing enragement over Boll’s treatment of his game before attempting to shoot him.A local convenience store serves as a secret Al-Qaeda hideout.Both film and game end in the apocalypse.
Gary Coleman, who appeared in Postal 2 as a brief cameo playing himself, was offered a role in the film but declined due to scheduling conflicts. Instead, the celebrity-parodying-himself role is fulfilled by Verne Troyer.
Vince Desidario confirmed in a recent interview that Uwe Boll would be a character in the game's upcoming sequel Postal III.
Sequel
Boll stated shortly after the film's production that he would most likely make a Postal 2, even if it went direct-to-video, considering that his film BloodRayne II: Deliverance was a successful direct-to-video sequel. As of December 2008, a sequel has yet to be announced.
External links
- ** at Cult Reviews
- at MoviesSet
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