Lovesusti
The Worst Film Ever
Maidexpl
Entertaining from beginning to end, it maintains the spirit of the franchise while establishing it's own seal with a fun cast
FirstWitch
A movie that not only functions as a solid scarefest but a razor-sharp satire.
Jonah Abbott
There's no way I can possibly love it entirely but I just think its ridiculously bad, but enjoyable at the same time.
Tyler Duffill
In my opinion this movie deserves a much higher rating then it has received. The acting is phenomenal, the directing is above par to most of Boll's movies and it is overall a good movie. But, to me it was a little too much. I've had my fair share in movies but this was a cut above the rest. Very graphic, very realistic and overall I found it very hard to watch. How the 3 prisoners beat, rape, degrade and humiliate one of the other fellow inmates to the point where they fake his suicide is very unsettling and believable. The ending is also very upsetting. One of Uwe Boll's best movies to date as well as Rampage. Great performances. I wouldn't recommend this movie due to its graphic content but it is a very good movie that deserves a higher rating then 4.7/10.
zulus88
Perhaps with childish naivety, I used to believe that Uwe Boll's trademark reputation is actually an effect of a very conscious manipulation. I hoped that one day he would emerge, like a stunning butterfly, from a cocoon of abysmal effort that did nothing but ruined countless video game franchises for their fans across the globe. Stoic and following it Rampage and Darfur (all three made in 2009) were to change prevailing opinion about Boll's lack of talent and test his skill in a more serious context. The first of them- a gritty prison drama, is far from the lows set by i.e. Alone in the Dark (2005) but is it sufficiently competent to redeem Boll? Supposedly based on facts- but in fact difficult to verify, Stoic is restricted to the space of one cell and a tragedy that plays out within it, between four cell-mates. Film is divided into interviews with three of them in the aftermath of their cell-mate's suicide death and footage that leads to this incident. Both unfold together, slowly revealing the true nature of the tragedy and each prisoner's role in it.Although structure allows for interesting escalation of both guilt and violence it is in no way reminiscent of Rashomon (1950) and Boll remains objective as to what we see leaving no questions about intentions of the violators. Extended from merely a treatment, film is filled with improvised rant that fails to capture the true essence of this story. All three aggressors come across unnaturally and their solid performances are wasted on an aimless direction that resorts to their monologue every time the narrative runs out of steam.In the end 80 minutes long feature is carried forward by several acts of brutality that turn to be disturbingly engrossing beats sustaining the collapsing tension. Stoic aims to be gritty and realist but lacks focus and talent to achieve these qualities. What materialises on the screen is a bore- repetitive and at times moronic dialogue and an apparent agenda that packs a punch but misses its target by miles. It fails to shock because it lacks any competently realised context for its content.Verdict: It's better than any of the countless video-game adaptations that Boll unleashed in his fury upon the world. But even still it is stagy, amateurish film-making that makes a point by showing brutal, animalistic behaviour but lacks either will or talent to turn it into anything relevant. There is simply no reward in enduring the violence for its sake and no interesting insight into why it was committed, beyond the obvious capacity for it that we all share. We come already equipped in that knowledge, Stoic does nothing that we wouldn't already know.
sweaterqueen90
I am struggling to understand any of these positive reviews. First off, I have not seen any of 'Uwe Boll' other offerings so I am not judging the film by his previous work, solely on this pointlessly brutal, savage unrelenting 82 minutes of film. I can usually watch films no matter of their content, however I did need to fast forward at least half of Stoic. Stil, some of the images of the film still haunt me! I fast forwarded hoping (somewhat naively) for a happy ending. I could quite happily of lived my entire life without watching this film. I really am confused as to why people would merit this, chiefly due to the 'shock factor'. I would estimate that 95% of the people who have watched and enjoyed this film are on some sort of register, and if they have kids social services will most definitely be keeping a close eye on them. In short, if you watched and enjoyed this film, you're probably a pervert; a violent, weird, pervert.
dschmeding
I won't go into discussing previous Boll Movies because it won't help talking about Stoic for its completely different at least from the trash I've seen by Boll. Stoic is a pretty straight movie about 4 guys in a prison cell and the dark automatics that group dynamics can take. The movie is pretty slow which makes sense because it follows all the little steps that lead to a giant disaster. It focuses on the 3 guys torturing their cell mates beginning with macho humiliation games that turn into a murder masked as a suicide. The visuals are gritty and the atmosphere is dark and kind of nihilistic, yet this movie is based on a true recent case in which the convicts were just around 20 years old. Stoic is no masterpiece, sure but its a movie that serves its purpose... the acting is believable, the inter-cut interview sequences with the depicted real events work, the atmosphere is cold and realistic in that the motivation by fear is pretty obvious for all involved. There are now winners here but luckily the picture painted is not black and white but a dark gray. I hate when cases like this one are put aside with the bare argument that the killers were "animals" or something like that because it almost never is simple like that. I like movies like Stoic for forcing the viewer to look at a side of humanity that is dormant in all of us until we are dropped into situations like the one depicted here and who knows if you or me wouldn't do things we can't think of now when fear messes up our rationality.I think the possibilities of group dynamics were depicted in a raw and realistic way... kind of reminded me of the bleak outcome in "Eden Lake". And in that it made me think after the credits rolled it sure was a good movie. I can understand if some people consider it too slow or too exploitative, yet I wouldn't say that myself. But a rating of 3 points with most reviews positive seems to finally prove that a lot of people really just hate Boll whatever he does. Up to now I saw no reason to argue for Boll but with this film I do since it is definitely far better than Bolls previous outputs.