First Shift: Whether you enjoy it or not, the controversial filmmaker Uwe Boll is back in cinema again for the first time through an extended cameo. Laing noted that he appeared in Radu Jude’s movie entitled Do Not Expect too Much from the End of the World, where he says A boxing match with film critics who consistently reviled his pictures at one point happened: “Gosh, now that I’ve gotten everything out, I’d like to tell my adversaries to shove it right up their ass.”
It remains the best scene, and the best cameo, of the year as it humorously satirizes the notorious storyconcerning the American filmmaker by incorporating his own self-deprecating performance. We have heard numerous filmmakers speak poorly of Boll, yet Jude has qualified this by stating that he considers himself a supporter of Lee’s creativity and ‘guts because he can continue working even if a lot of people say, we just don’t like you doing that,’” said Lee during a recent interview, Eric Marchen.
Boll returns in a director’s chair with First Shift. It is his first fiction film in the last 6 years since Rampage: President Down. One could simply argue that the film is horrible and approvingly speak of it (most critics do) as a vulgar piece of cinema that is a tragi-comedy about the police ever so poorly executed. It may be, since the editing by Ethan Maniquis, who was one of Robert Rodriguez’s hatchet men, is quite janky and makes the movie a bit difficult to watch in its entirety.
There is also a storyline that is rather engrossing with Gino Anthony Pesi as Detective Deo Russo of the NYPD, who has just begun his first shift with his partner Angela Dutton, played by Kristen Renton, but which tends to bounce all over the place when the editing is constantly interspersed with the other plot involving an old man fainting in a supermarket, mafia members engaging in a double killing, and a woman pleading with her boyfriend who is about to kill himself in the bathroom to come out.
Nonetheless, there is something enjoyable in the viewing of an Uwe Boll film so I can’t really talk down his filmography as for instance, Postal, BloodRayne, House of the Dead, In the Name of the King and my favorite, Assault on Wall Street (unironically! Dominic Purcell deserves more credit than he is given).
To be honest, it is commendable that a director is able to produce that many features in such a short span. And I will bet every penny that no one of those people out of many, who spent his life just spitting on Uwe Boll body of work has as much features as he does. In the same way as Jude said earlier, “What makes him different is that he is armed to the teeth with a considerable amount of feature films. He has a considerable body of work and sheer number of films. This is exactly what makes him different.”
First Shift isn’t in the same league as Postal but it is quite uniquely about Uwe Boll featuring scenes of over the top graphic violence, image sequences with lots of movement (though House of the Dead’s cemetery shootout still remains the best) lots of scenes filled with extremely politically incorrect humor, like Russo today feeling sick of Angela’s irritating ‘wokey dokey’ commitment to progressivism. There are people out there who have it extremely easy, to all these people it doesn’t matter what Boll does, they hate him already.
However, if there’s something in Boll’s story that invites you to sympathize with the ‘glass half full’ approach towards all the tomatoes he has to deal with, then perhaps a thrill at seeing First Shift as a resurgence will be on the cards for you.
Most of the focus in the film revolves around Deo and Angela’s exploratory phase towards each other, and it’s not half bad. Of course, some of the lines seem to be and not in any way realistic (like in a scene where Deo is berating about someone called Angela who presses him sternly on, what seems to be a hundred variations of the question, ‘Why?’), but the two Pesi and Renton have enough of a spark between them, with the latter winning the battle as the best actor in First Shift.
She is pretty easy to like, and it is easy to be more sympathetic towards her than her male counterpart, who, during the extremely lengthy and very dull opening credits of the film, seems to be carelessly altering himself; putting on and lacing his shoes and fastening his badge on his belt while preparing a protein shake quite leisurely.
Changing direction, let’s switch to basic constructive analysis. Appearing with emptiness in his eyes managed to sell the character, the rage wnd even murder of the character and allows us to look into the sick mind of the character. He potentially carries a gentle side in him and can connect that when the situation arises to take care of the dog with Angela, using softer tones, to show the softer side of the protagonist.
These all are such good scenes, none of them sound cheesy, and his final conversation with the dog owner, played by Willie C. Carpenter, is very natural. From these scenes, and good chemistry into early stages of First Shift, this film is not a disaster, and definitely not a cheap rubbish.
There are many other low, more expensive films which insult the average audience members, cough cough Alien Romulus, and make them sit through purposeless pseudo-epics about how a dead celebrity gets up from the grave so the masses can tip their popcorn filled fat faces and applaud.
Boll’s films are unrelentingly ill-constructed but are made in good faith, however, even wags his finger at the dopes who paid for Rampage: President Down’s poorly crowdfunded launch. He is trying to creatively engage his camera, though at times it doesn’t work – for instance, in the scene of the supermarket collapse. So a lot of filmmakers seem to be afraid of trying today. But, I guess, there are always more talented and creative filmmakers trying different – and usually less effective – approaches like revealing and lacking the sense of space in the shot after the shot, as happens here.
Everything else in the movie is not that great and many of its emotionally stoking subplots lead nowhere. For the most part, this entire 89 minute film can be described as a slow build to its climax where we witness two police officers on their rounds in the middle of a war between criminals and law enforcement, which has been beautifully enhanced in the scenes with Garry Pastore playing the ‘soon to be achieved by the franchise’ antagonist.
Surprise, surprise! Boll states that his future ambitious plans for First Shift is aiming to achieve what he believes is the next Kodak moment in the film industry, with Kevin Costner’s Horizon: An American Saga Chapter One where the viewers listen to the voiceover as it matches the video glimpses of First Shift: Part Two. Honestly speaking, I would rather Barrett take a more explosive approach with Postal 2 rather than sit through yet another First Shift movie which is highly unlikely to be any fun because the director is not at his explosive best in this film as it is largely unrequired for the plot.
However, there is also a positive for viewers who hate the project—Boll has already completed another film, Run, and is working on more films as well. Many say, however, the exact opposite and would like for him not to make a comeback.
His movies are and have always been labeled as some of the worst movies ever made which makes this scenario amusing especially from the viewpoint of a critic who has always held respect for Boll’s attitude and his boldness in telling everyone to go “fuck off” (and fuck you also as he sourly proclaims in ‘Do Not Expect Too Much from the End of the World’).
Is First Shift a good film? Not particularly, it is rather dull. Does it matter? It does not change the situation anyways – Boll will always be remembered in the annals of “history of cinema”. He can continue making movies even if people do not want to go and watch them (one of the petition for him to quit making movies went viral in 2008 and had over one million supporters) and it should encourage many to never stop following their passion. Of course, First Shift is not a good film, and I’ll probably get lots of death threats from cinephiles as the movie will help critics wash blood off their hands.
However, it is one of the more commendable pieces that seeks, in a patient manner, to repay its audience for their endurance of the characters for an over the top experience in Parts Two and Three. It’s funny to see how this much self-confidence gets actualized, though of course I doubt it will ever happen. It is interesting, I would say, that one does not have to position oneself in that way.
In the case of Do Not Expect Too Much from the End of the World there was quite the temptation to utilize that sort of stance – the visual image is, after all, quite remarkable. The man then flicked his hat to the side and left the setting in the post-credits of Rampage: President Down and now appears to be back on set.
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