a review of
I've heard people say this is just a lesser American Psycho rip-off. I don't know how accurate that is as I haven't seen that movie, but let me tell you why Uwe Boll's take is worth watching anyways. It has all the makings of a '80s cult classic B-movie. It's trashy, surprisingly stylish, and doesn't take itself too seriously. Right from the beginning the ridiculous techno rave music that plays over the opening credits let's you know you're in for a cheesy good time. I can't praise the movie enough for how good it looks. For once Boll's attempts to be cool actually kind of worked, as his stylistic choices imbue the film with a suitable atmosphere. His old calling card of splicing in quick cuts to split-second montages of scenes from later in the movie into areas where they don't fit the action happening onscreen at the time does rear its ugly head, but other than that this looks like the work of a competent director. Which is remarkable because it doesn't even seem like he was trying hard. Unlike Postal where as bad as the material was, he did the best work of his career behind the camera through no small effort. Another example of how when Boll wasn't focusing on his latest critical lashing or crafting a soapbox for his political and social views, he could actually make something pretty entertaining. In fact, despite running with background themes Boll would later go crazy with in projects like his Rampage trilogy (apparently on the verge of becoming a quadrilogy), Sanctimony doesn't appear to have any intentions beyond simply entertaining the audience. It's got a sense of humor and I even found myself a little invested in this tale of a crazed yuppie serial killer facing off against a job weary cop who's trying to solve the case before it's ripped out of his hands. Outside of a scene where the killer sexually abuses his girlfriend/fiance I was onboard with the action and had a ton of fun. The rating you see is definitely coming from the ol' trash-o-meter, but I've always been the kind of guy who rates based on personal enjoyment, rather than on any objective measures of quality anyways. This is for all intents and purposes a "bad" movie. But it's so bad, it's RAD! Outdated terminology that I hope conveys the kind of tone you should expect from this.