Rampage: Capital Punishment Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		1.5
Video		3.0
Audio		2.5
Extras		2.0
Overall		2.0

Rampage: Capital Punishment Blu-ray Movie Review

He looks disgruntled!

Reviewed by Martin Liebman September 20, 2014

Conspiracy theorist meets political junkie meets Grand Theft Auto character in Rampage: Capital Punishment, a picture from the legendarily despised Uwe Boll (In the Name of the King: A Dungeon Siege Tale) about a man who speaks out against the controlling elite by...wasting innocent civilians who are as much a pawn in the game as he. Whatever. It's Uwe Boll. It's the follow-up to Rampage, a 2009 picture focused on the same character who kills a bunch of people. This film has precious little depth. It's nothing more than a mouthpiece for Boll's political agenda (he also wrote the script and stars in the film as a fat cat TV executive who profits off the bloodbath). The movie does have its moments of deeper drama, good acting, and a haunting atmosphere, but the repetitive doldrums, bland shoot-outs, and heavy-handed messaging not only destroy the movie but prevent the more detailed points of Boll's worldview to really come into focus.

rantin', chillin', and killin'. All in a day's work.

Three years ago, Bill Williamson (Brendan Fletcher) killed over 100 people, clad in black body armor and armed with automatic weapons and explosives, resulting in the single-deadliest rampage in U.S. history. He eluded the authorities and has since vanished into the world. Now, he has re-emerged, releasing an online video in which he decries the government and big business elites that run the country behind-the-scenes. He no longer sees America as what it was and should be but instead as a cesspool of corruption and elitism that profits on war, death, and the dumbing-down of society. His goal: to wake people up. His m.o.: massacre the very people he is trying to enlighten to gain enough national media attention to get his point across. He storms a television station building, kills dozens, and takes many hostage, including a television news personality named Chip Parker (Lochlyn Munro).

Though the box art shows an armored-clad man in front of a burning, exploding U.S. Capital building, there's no such scene in the movie. Of course, it wouldn't really help sell the movie if it showed what it was really about, which is an armored-clad man...sitting in some bland, gray storage room of a television station, spouting off a list of complaints about how the world works behind the scenes, about how people are, basically, blinded sheep to the propaganda with which the powers-that-be flood the market to keep the populace under control. Boll, through his Bill Williamson character, makes a few broad valid points but is all over the map in terms of political ideology, a mishmash of pure libertarianism, hard-left anti-gun and pro-healthcare rhetoric, and who knows what else. It all jumbles together under the guise of an "action" picture that is in reality a manifesto, pure and simple. It's strange that Boll would choose mass violence as a means of getting his point across. There's the classic "nobody will listen to me unless I make them" mentality going on, but images of a man randomly gunning people down from the comfort of a lawn chair doesn't really seem the best avenue of approach to speak out against Guantanamo Bay.

Boll proves that he does have some talent as a filmmaker and, if he gives it a legitimate go, isn't quite the hack he's made out to be. He shows some skill in building atmosphere in the film, first a sense of anticipation and unease which gives way to pure disgust and terror. What he doesn't know how to do, if this film is any indication, is keep his audience engaged. As noted above, this is less an Action/Thriller with political undertones than it is a straight manifesto as told in a fictional frame. Other films and media have done it much better, from Live Free or Die Hard to Vince Flynn's Term Limits, the latter a perfect example of political messaging mixed with fast-paced and well-constructed entertainment. Rampage: Capital Punishment feels more like Heathers, in a way, but without the charm and the black comedy that offsets just how twisted and creepy it really is. Political points become political rambles become a nearly incoherent stream of consciousness that's not at all helped by delivery in a bland setting through an unnecessarily long runtime, even at what should be a brisk 90 minutes. Brendan Fletcher is rather good in the lead role. He shows a mastery of the part and plays it convincingly, outwardly unraveling an inwardly warped mind. He's convincing in his methodicalness and calmness, crucial in at least creating the illusion of a man driven to the extreme by a passion few understand and making his point at the end of a gun rather than the tip of a pen.

Rampage: Capital Punishment Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Rampage: Capital Punishment features a boring 1080p transfer. The image is flat and bland, lacking any sort of defining vitality or crispness. Details never reach for anything better than "fair." Facial features, fine details in the character's armor, and clothing lines reveal adequate textures. The storeroom set piece lacks much of anything of visual interest. It's suitably defined but nothing more. Colors, likewise, are fine but hardly excite. Clothes provide the most variety against the predominately gray main stage backdrop. Neither black levels nor flesh tones prove problematic, but neither do they appear realistically positioned anywhere in the film. The image suffers from light banding and noise. This is a serviceable image, nothing more and nothing less.

Rampage: Capital Punishment Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Rampage: Capital Punishment arrives on Blu-ray with a bland, lifeless Dolby Digital 5.1 soundtrack. Though the film is more a talker than a gunner, it certainly lacks the precision and sonic nuance that could have elevated the action scenes a few notches. Gunfire is flat and phony, lacking the authentic rattle and crack of real life weaponry, the precision sounds the best tracks can effortlessly reproduce. Explosions also lack heft and stage presence. The track throws some random effects into the back spacers, but imaging, directionality, and all-around immersion are poor, whether in the heat of battle or when conveying basic environment ambience. Dialogue delivery is satisfactorily clean and focused, yet the track is a disappointment in total.

Rampage: Capital Punishment Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

Rampage: Capital Punishment contains several extras.

• Audio Commentary: Director Uwe Boll confesses he doesn't know what the film will be called in every region. He covers the backstory introduced at the beginning of the film, his desire to continue the series as part of a trilogy, his politics and world observations (which make for the most interesting part of the track), casting and performances, and more. The track is significantly more interesting than the film.
• The Making of Rampage: Capital Punishment (1080p, 25:23): A collection of on-set footage and cast and crew interviews.
• Trailer (1080p, 1:30).

Rampage: Capital Punishment Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Rampage: Capital Punishment tends to ramble and lose whatever point Boll and company are trying to get across. Disgruntled citizens battling the system is almost always a sure bet -- Falling Down is a spectacular film, for example -- but Rampage: Capital Punishment just goes for the jugular from the start and then becomes little more than a de facto rant against anything and everything that takes place behind closed doors. Adding random murder and mayhem only makes the audience dislike the character and not pay attention to what he has to say. Maybe Boll should just write his manifesto, publish it, and move on, particularly considering the much more engaging delivery of his commentary track, agree with his observations or not. Phase 4's Blu-ray release of Rampage: Capital Punishment features middling video, flat audio, and a few supplements. Avoid.