Review: Rampage President Down (2016)

Here it is gentlemen, the final instalment of Uwe Boll’s Rampage trilogy. This is where it ends. Bill Williamson’s campaign of terror against the corrupt, capitalist elite of the USA and all it stands for. I for one fucking love these movies. Was President Down everything I expected… well, maybe not quite, but it doesn’t fall far short. And given that it’s basically an independent film, I think it’s a hell of a lot better than it ought to be. Most of the ass holes directing big films in Hollywood these days probably couldn’t shoot a single scene for what this must have cost. And Bill’s last stand,where he lures a posse of FBI agents and SWAT police into the woods for a final showdown looks absolutely bloody fantastic. Breathtaking. I remember Uwe talking about how he was able to hire a lot of the people involved at a lower rate than usual, thanks to filming at a quiet time of year. He’s learned a lot directing low budget pictures over the years and it’s paid off. The action definitely surpasses what we saw in Rampage: Capital Punishment. If this really is his last movie then he’s going out with dignity. The action sequence is fucking brutal, with stuntmen being hurled through the air in all directions and shell casings flying all over the place. Not to mention people getting hit with realistic looking squibs, unapologetically spitting out mouthfuls of blood and guts, notching up the body count and ratcheting up the chaos to ultra violent levels.

The story: Bill is hiding out in the woods a few hundred miles from Washington. Now he has a girlfriend and a baby son, as well as a small army of followers out in the world, people he’s touched with his political message and, er, affirmative action, his unique brand of population control. After honing his skills with a sniper rifle he hops on a train to D.C. and takes out the President of the United States, initiating a massive manhunt, not to mention all out nuclear war. FBI agents Jones and Molokai are in charge of the investigation and identify Bill from CCTV footage. But thanks to a mole in the bureau Tenderville Bill is always one step ahead of the detectives. Taunting them and threatening their families, he lures them to his hiding place for the final showdown and a rip-roaring holocaust of balletic violence ensues.

Uwe Boll and Bredan Fletcher have really put their hearts and souls into this project. Fletcher is the wrath of God, as well as showing his sentimental side, having now a baby son to consider and expressing the vain hopes of all parents in the underprivileged 99%. Okay, so it’s a tad hypocritical given the number of innocent people Bill has mown down in the last couple of films, but fuck it, if you stop to worry about that you’d be missing the point. His motivations and justifications are spelled out pretty clearly, to the point where one of the agents pursuing him even has to admit to agreeing with everything he says, just not the way he goes about it. Remember what Uwe Boll’s television executive said in Capital Punishment – “He’s totally right” – it’s a shame that character didn’t reappear, Boll was funny as fucking hell in that part.

The movie is let down slightly by some of the supporting actors. The main cast is great, Brendan Fletcher, fresh from his appearance in The Revenant, as Bill Williamson (obviously) and agents Molokai and Jones, especially Steve Baran as Molokai, did fine jobs in my opinion, but the two news anchors, who were fairly key characters, were kind of lame. Furthermore, the low budget shows at times. We don’t get to see the president being shot, or much of the chaos which erupts in the film’s final moments (I’m trying not to spoil the end), but instead it’s relayed to us in the form of news reports, with newsreel footage of ambulances, helicopters, flags being raised over the White House and so forth. I guess that’s kind of keeping in line with the style of storytelling which has been set by the previous films and it does the job well enough. Fans of the first two will also be familiar with Boll’s documentary shooting style which works brilliantly again here.

Anyone who had a happy, shit eating grin on their face at the end of Assault on Wall Street should find the conclusion to President Down pretty satisfying, if a little bit over-sentimental. As a fan, I was chuckling to myself and I’m happy with the way the series has ended, if kind of sad about it at the same time. If only we could see Dominic Purcell in a couple more Assault on Wall Street films as well.

I have the Limited Edition Rampage trilogy DVD set from Germany and I’m very happy to have spent 20 euros on it. Daniel Craig and the producers of the next Bond movie can get the fuck out of here – Uwe Boll has proved that you can make a better film for about a fucking 1000th of the price. I’ve already watched it twice and I can’t wait to watch it again.

Thank you Uwe Boll and Brendan Fletcher for bringing Bill into the world and busting your asses to complete the trilogy. And thanks to Night for recommending Assault on Wall Street to me in the first place.

9 out of 10