Uwe Boll is a director who is constantly taking heat for his style of filmmaking and his obsession with turning video games into movies. I don’t play a lot of video games, so I didn’t realize that some of his recent films were based on games until I received the movies. With TUNNEL RATS, Boll does the opposite of what he usually does. In this case, he made the movie first and then, made the video game available for download on the web. However, while some critics have called TUNNEL RATS a masterpiece, I, for one cannot say that.
The plot of this film is very simple: It’s a war movie that takes place in 1968 during Vietnam. A special American combat unit trained in underground warfare is sent deep into the jungles of Cu Chi to flush out the Viet Cong that inhabit the many underground tunnels and bases below the jungle floor. What should turn out to be a simple find-and-bomb routine, however, turns into a nightmare for this group of Special Forces personnel, when the Viet Con use booby traps and ambush techniques to kill off the American solders. Outnumbered by the enemy, the remaining men must fight their way though the tunnels to freedom or end up as casualties themselves.
I give Boll credit for not only directing this film but for writing and producing it as well. However, the film does have its problems right from the start. The biggest downfall of the script is that it starts off very slowly. Boll tries to develop his characters and give them personalities that we can relate with, but he fails at doing so. What he creates instead are basic underdeveloped movie characters who all seem to be just more foot solders whose deaths we wouldn’t care about, whether they were killed off in the beginning of the film or in the end. The second half of the film is all action with all-out war, which includes horrific kill scenes, and is overdone with a lot of gore and blood. Sure, it’s fun to be entertained by all-out war and chaos, but the story does not really develop any further until the very end of the film.
The film does have a very good look and feel and for a Boll film, which I found to be surprising. In some of the horror films he’s made in the past, the production values have not been so great. With TUNNEL RATS, there are some really nice-looking sets, and locations that give the feel that the characters really are in Vietnam fighting the war in the jungles. The visual and make-up effects are top-notch, and there are some impressive kill scenes that are sure to make gore hounds happy.
The DVD has a few special features that include an interview as well as a commentary track with Director Uwe Boll. There is also a behind the scenes featurette and deleted scenes.
I can’t say that this film is a masterpiece. It does have its flaws, especially in the beginning. The end of the film is packed with action scenes, but it does get very suspenseful as these brave solders try to get out of the hell that is the tunnels of Vietnam and back to freedom. I know that this film is based on the real life tunnel rats that were made up of men from the United States as well as Australia and New Zealand. In the end, however, for a film directed by the modern day Ed Wood, this one is not half bad.
– Horror Bob
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- Interview with Rick Popko and Dan West - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Director Stevan Mena (Malevolence) - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Screenwriter Jeffery Reddick (Day of the Dead 2007) - January 22, 2015
- Teleconference interview with Mick Garris (Masters of Horror) - January 22, 2015
- A Day at the Morgue with Corri English (Unrest) - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Writer/Director Nacho Cerda (The Abandoned, Aftermath) - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Actress Thora Birch (Dark Corners, The Hole, American Beauty) - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Actor Jason Behr, Plus Skinwalkers Press Coverage - January 22, 2015
