the audience applauded

just watch it!

Crappy film

Admirable film.

Reading the reviews for this movie quickly identified two camps. The first zero in on the infamous director and splinter off into different veins of the same discussion. While the latter group are quick to point out historical, military inaccuracies and/or compare it to other films.I will do neither. Yes, I'm well aware of Uwe Boll and his exploits, even though I had never saw one of his movies until Tunnel Rats, and no, I didn't go into this movie hoping for a great war flick that would stand up to the best of its genre peers. I quite honestly stumbled upon Tunnel Rats by accident and then it was only curiosity as fueled by all the talk about it (both positive and negative) that kept me around and ended with me giving it a go.Tunnel Rats really only has one thing going for it. Claustrophobia. A thing that many people (me included) can easily identify with. The directing isn't bad, the acting isn't particularly bad, but overall, Tunnel Rats is a very average movie. Recommended only as a curiosity and nothing more, I've left the heavy analyzing to others.

Prolific German director Uwe Boll has become something of a spittoon for film-going audiences with his much-hated video game-based action and horror movies, such as House of the Dead (2003), Alone in the Dark (2005) and BloodRayne (2005). While the aforementioned movies range from atrocious to just below passable, his later non-game based films have earned some more positive comments too. I was skeptical about his Vietnam War tale Tunnel Rats when popping the DVD in the player last night, but in the end the atmospheric film proved out to be fairly enjoyable.The story is set in 1968 Vietnam where a platoon of American soldiers is clearing the underground tunnels that the Vietnamese troops use in their stealth missions and connections. The dark, narrow and frequently booby-trapped tunnels are anything but safe, but when a massive Viet Cong attack begins, life above the ground is just as cheap and bodies start piling up quicker than can be counted.Unlike many mindless actioners, Tunnel Rats begins rather slowly; the first third of the runtime is spent on getting to know the soldiers as they pass time during the day and night before their tunnel mission begins the next day. The hardened veterans and enthusiastic or frightened rookies don't feel particularly memorable or unique compared to other war movies, but some characters are at least somewhat worth caring about, such as Privates Verano and Porterson (Rocky Marquette and Garikayi Mutambirwa). However, I don't think the charm of the film is really in character drama anyway (indeed, according to Boll there was no script and the actors improvised their lines); the story works much more effectively once the action gets going because it manages to not feel like a generic carbon-copy of the Rambo series like I was worried it would.The claustrophobic tunnels are lit extremely scarcely with yellow hand-held lights that make the underground scenes feel very atmospheric even if (or because) it is sometimes difficult to see what exactly is happening on the screen. The cinematography in the scenes above the ground has a faded, washed-out look that makes the green jungle appear all the more miserable a place. Besides the visuals, the subdued score by Jessica de Rooij also supports the mood well, beginning as little more than a compilation of ominous tones but ultimately turning into a pleasantly low-key accompaniment for the battles that could have easily felt overtly banal with more bombastic music.The best scenes are saved for the last: the agonizing, nightmarish crawls through collapsing tunnels, the encounter with a frightened Vietnamese family hiding underground and the explosion-heavy fights in the Army base are all fairly suspenseful and done in a less cartoony way than could be expected judging from Boll's earlier efforts (that is not to say Tunnel Rats wouldn't present a fair share of gory violence though). The downbeat ending is left somewhat open but makes its point clear in an enjoyably laconic way.Although Tunnel Rats is not quite a masterpiece, it is a fairly well made war film and would surely have a higher user rating if Boll's name was not attached to it. Were the characters more memorable, the movie could have been even better, but I dare to recommend it to fans of the genre even as it is now. All in all, perhaps grudgingly it must be acknowledged that Uwe Boll actually can make a good film, even if a lot of people would prefer him to remain an easy target for mockery and sarcasm.

I've always been a fan of war movies, Vietnam in particular. I like how film directors work hard to try their best to re-create the horror and brutality of war. It is very frustrating to me when you find a movie like 'Tunnel Rats', that seems to lack any real focus or originality. Basically, to me, this movie is awful. Terrible acting, plot less storyline--even the costumes were bad. I don't understand, with all the brilliant war movies out there, not to mention thousands of books about Vietnam War for references, how the director didn't put any effort into the realism of the story. It's over-the-top gore in places just seemed unnecessary,like it was trying to compensate for the rest of this wasted movie. If you like Vietnam films, avoid this turkey and just watch one of the classics instead.

I don't count myself among Uwe Boll's apologists. I think it's important I mention that before I start talking about "Tunnel rats". I find all his films utter crap, and the fact that he has found stardom among the geeks as "the world's worst film director" a sort of cosmic joke that only God, should he exist, and Boll himself might find funny.Then there's the occasional hint that he's not stupid. Like the sheer brilliance of one of his latest publicity stunts, boxing his critics, or his systematic criticism of Hollywood directors he finds as bad as he is. And even the latter has its own dose of lame-ness. Here's one director who doesn't claim he could make Hollywood blockbusters better than American directors, but just as badly as them.Anyway, I had some expectations for "Tunnel rats", expectations that I have seen fulfilled, as you may guess from the fact that this thread is on the "Good movies" board. The film is nothing like "Platoon", which I still think it's the best Vietnam movie made so far, but more like "The Siege of Firebase Gloria", "Hamburger Hill" or even "Platoon leader". That is, I expected a movie light on content and budget but competently made and gritty, and that's what I got."Tunnel rats" tells the story of an American unit deployed in the jungles of Vietnam, where they are ordered to explore and take out a vast network of tunnels build by the Vietcong. And that's it. It plays like a cross between "Firebase Gloria" and "Cube", because sooner or later most characters end up underground, fighting for their survival.The best I can say about "Tunnel rats", and the most accurate way to describe it, is to say it doesn't feel like an Uwe Boll movie. The production values are adequate, the music and cinematography are top notch and the acting is competent all around. The latter could have been even better, but the script doesn't exactly shine at character development. It wants all the characters to be underdeveloped, so you don't know who's going to die next, and acts accordingly.Even better, the camera-work is actually pretty good. Boll here finally gets rid of that terrible habit of his of trying to cram to many things into the same movie, and the tone and the approach remain consistent throughout the whole movie. For once, you can see him aiming for subtlety instead of blatant plagiarism and schlock. Yes, I was shocked too. Here Boll restraints the camera as much as he can, aiming (and achieving) a tense calm in the scenes set in the surface, and a harrowing, claustrophobic sensation whenever anybody enters the tunnels.Not all is that good, though. There are a few scenes depicting the V.C. fighters that carefully avoid taking sides, but which feel nevertheless a tad cliché, and a major action scene in the surface abandons the quietness of the previous action bits for a hand-held, rushed camera-work that feels like a major mistake.But still, this is a must see, specially for those who enjoyed the many Nam actioners of the VHS era. Considering how tightly paced it is, and how careful Boll has been this time not to screw this one up, it's unlikely he does anything better anytime soon. What the hell, this film may easily end up passing as his masterpiece.