Why on God’s green earth Uwe Boll would agree to participate in a Reddit AMA is beyond me, but that’s exactly what happened as the German filmmaker, dubbed one of the worst directors in the world, opened himself up to questions from a hostile crowd—and the result was entirely predictable.
Appearing to promote his latest, “Citizen Vigilante,” Boll was showered with insults by the left-leaning Reddit crowd. The AMA ended an hour later with Boll storming out, telling everyone to go watch soccer instead of “wasting my time.”
Asked why he keeps directing “even after already making some of the worst movies ever,” Boll replied: “to top them all.” (The follow-up, from the same user: “I mean, OK, but when are you going to start trying that?”)
It only got worse.
Asked how he keeps getting work, Boll answered: “money.” When questioned about the apparent irony that Armie Hammer’s vigilante is himself an immigrant living in another country and killing other immigrants, Boll answered: “that was the point.”
When cornered over the film’s anti-Islam message, Boll wryly responded: “i have muslim friends ….”
Another thing we learned, courtesy of Boll: when asked about the film’s low score, he claimed that “IMDB is bought and paid for …. owned by the studios.”
Boll’s final message to the hostile Redditors: “Guys, why a lot of you are stuck in the past. You love to hate and trash me … watch RAMPAGE, STOIC, ASSAULT ON WALLSTREET, FIRST SHIFT, HEART OF AMERICA, POSTAL, TUNNELRATS, RUN, DARFUR and open your eyes. Forget my name and just watch the movies. Look at the ratings at amazon and you see what the REAL AUDIENCE believes …. ! You are so in love of bashing me that you forgot yourself. I wish you all a great evening and now watch soccer on TV instead of wasting my time here.”
“Citizen Vigilante” holds a 6% critics score on Rotten Tomatoes, based on 16 reviews, but boasts a 93% audience score. The film also climbed to #1 on both Apple and Amazon after going viral across social media—for reasons that, depending on who you ask, were either exactly right or completely wrong.
Boll is best known for his notoriously ill-received video game adaptations of the 2000s, all of which were critical and commercial disasters. He retired from filmmaking in 2016 to become a restaurateur but has since returned. His films “House of the Dead” and “Alone in the Dark” both proudly sit on IMDb’s “Bottom 100” list. At one point, he referred to Ain’t It Cool’s Harry Knowles, one of his most vocal detractors, as a “retard.”
A few years ago, Boll proclaimed himself to be “the only genius in the whole fucking [movie] business” and declared that directors like Michael Bay and Eli Roth are “fucking retards.” And really, how could he not have that kind of confidence? Especially after releasing 2011’s “Auschwitz,” which he has referred to as his “masterpiece.”
Not more than 24 hours later, Guy Ritchie’s role offer to Markle has now reportedly been withdrawn. The story goes that they don’t want her in the show anymore “after intense backlash in the U.K.”