I've never seen a Boll film before but I have heard the rumours. This might be why I thought this wasn't too bad. My expectations were way, way down.

However, it wasn't as bad as I feared. Now granted, I'm glad I didn't pay money to see it but it was better than some of the drivel I've seen. This, I could actually sit through and didn't think that I was completely wasting my time.

The locations and sets were good, the cinematography not bad, the acting let things down a bit and the writing was very, very ordinary. I even found the references to the game (as little as they were) amusing.

Jack Carver is a retired special forces soldier... but he gets sucked back in to combat when a reporter has him bring her to an island where a money-hungry German scientist is genetically modifying humans into super soldiers (not like Captain America) to be one-man wrecking machines. Will Jack be able to defeat an entire army?

Uwe Boll is getting better as a director. "Bloodrayne 2" was good, "Tunnel Rats" was respectable, and now this... I liked it. The days of pure manure like "Alone in the Dark" and "House of the Dead" might finally be behind him. And it helps that he has a strong cast... Til Schweiger ("SLC Punk", "Inglourious Basterds") is a great action star as Jack Carver. Emmanuelle Vaugier is annoying, but able as reporter Valerie Cardinal. I fell in love with Natalia Avelon as military leader Katja Chernov, and want to see all her movies... too bad they're in German.

B-movie hack (and I say that with respect) Michael Paré is Paul Summers... and not to be missed, creepy German guy Udo Kier is Dr. Lucas Krieger! Because, you know, you can't have a good film without a mad German scientist. (There should have been some subplot of him being an ex-Nazi, but the mystery of his painting kept me intrigued well enough.) Chris Coppola shows up as Emilio the Food Guy. You might recall Coppola from other Boll films: "BloodRayne II: Deliverance" as Newton Piles and "Postal" as Richard. I wouldn't mind seeing him again... a little comic relief is important in an action film.

Action, humor, sex... this is a good adaptation. And there are plenty of stunts (see the list of stunt men -- it's longer than the cast). Uwe Boll, you are beginning to pleasantly surprise me... bring on your "Max Schmeling" movie and bring on "BloodRayne 3".

FAR CRY is the film version of a popular video game that I know nothing about. However, I do know something about the career of infamous German director Uwe Boll, a man responsible for the likes of BLOODRAYNE and ALONE IN THE DARK, and commonly thought of as one of our worst modern directors. I'm pleased to report that FAR CRY is by far the best Boll film I've thus watched; it's no masterpiece, that's for sure, but it's reasonably entertaining, unlike the majority of his output.

The film contains all of the ingredients usual for a Boll-style B-movie: an ensemble cast of fading faces, lots of low rent action, some cheesy effects and the like, and plenty of cliché. However, this time around that mix is quite fun. Til Schweiger, the German actor who rose to international prominence after his part in Tarantino's INGLOURIOUS BASTERDS, is fine as the likable and humorous hero, and Emmanuelle Vaugier and Natalia Avelon are suitably attractive female co-stars.

This film is a German/Canadian co-production which is quite convincing when it comes to the styling. The action scenes are fairly well done and certainly you often see B-movie shoot-outs that are done far worse than the ones here. Some of the old-timer actors playing tough guys include Don S. Davis, Craig Fairbrass, Udo Kier, Michael Pare, and Ralf Moeller. The plot is your usual nonsense about a mad scientist creating an army of super soldiers and the one or two soldiers we do get to see here are pretty impressive, coming across as a zombie version of the ones in UNIVERSAL SOLDIER. Anyway, FAR CRY is no great shakes as a film, but it is a reasonably entertaining B-movie nonetheless.