Postal

Postal (2008)

Genres - Comedy, Action, Adventure, Thriller  |   Sub-Genres - Action Comedy  |   Release Date - May 23, 2008 (USA), May 23, 2008 (USA - Limited)  |   Run Time - 109 min.  |   Countries - Canada, Germany, United States  |   MPAA Rating - R
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Review by Jason Buchanan

If Lloyd Kaufman were to get a lobotomy and decide to make a satire skewering post-9/11 politics, the result would probably be pretty close in tone and execution to notorious schlockmeister Uwe Boll's fifth video game-to-film adaptation -- the only difference being that the imaginary Troma version of Postal might actually be worth watching. Not that Postal doesn't have a handful of inspired moments -- it could well be Boll's best film -- it's just all so shoddily cobbled together that for every gag that works, there are ten minutes of incidental and incoherent nonsense to offset the laughs and grate on the viewer's patience. Watching Postal, one truly gets the impression that Boll was just making the script up as he went along, mistaking sophomoric offensiveness for smart social satire at various points along the way. Crafting a truly effective social satire is no simple task, and unlike the creators of the similarly minded South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut, Boll simply doesn't have the screenwriting skills needed to keep Postal from careening out of control at the precise moments when it should all be coming together. It's a bit of a shame, too, as he does occasionally manage to make some pretty wry observations about the state of world politics and small-town American attitudes. In the end, Boll just isn't sharp enough to take on such an ambitious project single-handedly, and by the time the movie gets truly meta and *Postal creator Vince Desiderio lunges at Boll (playing himself) screaming, "What the hell have you done to my video game!?!" the average viewer will rightfully want to reach through the screen and assist Desiderio in wringing the neck of the man responsible for this mess.