Director: Uwe Boll
Writer: Uwe Boll
Stars: Gino Anthony Pesi, Kristen Renton, James McMenamin
Synopsis: Follows a NYC police officer along with his rookie partner Angela, as they have a rough day while living the dangerous, and routine job of being a cop in the city.
Whether you want it to happen or not, infamous filmmaker Uwe Boll has made his grand return to the world of movies. First, via an extended cameo in Radu Jude’s Do Not Expect Too Much from the End of the World, in which he recounts the time he boxed critics who constantly trashed his films (this really happened, by the way) and then tells all of his haters to “fuck off!” in a social media video for Angela’s (Ilinca Manolache) Bobita avatar.
It remains the year’s best scene – and cameo – as it playfully mocks Boll’s legacy in cinema through the filmmaker’s self-deprecating appearance. Jude isn’t a hater and actively respects Boll’s “resilience and his capacity to face and go on even if some people say ‘well, we don’t like what you’re doing.’ But he keeps doing it,” as he said in a recent interview with Eric Marchen.
Now, Boll is back in the director’s chair with First Shift, his first fiction film since 2016’s Rampage: President Down. I could sit here and tell you that the film is bad and take pleasure in vilifying it (as most critics do, apparently) for being nothing more than a poorly made, exploitative cop drama. For sure, its janky editing from Ethan Maniquis (one of Robert Rodriguez’s closest collaborators) does make the viewing experience discombobulating.
It’s also a bit hard to discern exactly where the story is going when it constantly parallel cuts between the film’s main plot thread involving NYPD Detective Deo Russo (Gino Anthony Pesi) and his new partner Angela Dutton (Kristen Renton) on their first shift, and three (!!!) other storylines on an old man collapsing in a grocery store, mobsters involved in a double homicide, and a woman convincing her lover not to commit suicide as he has locked himself in the bathroom.
But there’s something inherently entertaining about watching a Uwe Boll movie so I can’t possibly bring myself to bash his filmography, which contains a wide array of genre works such as Postal, BloodRayne, House of the Dead, In the Name of the King, and, my personal favorite, Assault on Wall Street (unironically! Dominic Purcell is an underappreciated talent).
Honestly, churning out that many movies in as little as ten years is quite impressive, and I guarantee that no one who spent decades completely lambasting Boll’s body of work has made as many movies as him. Like Jude said, “What sets him apart is that he has many, many films. He has a big oeuvre and a quantity of films. That makes him different.”
First Shift is no Postal, but it’s decidedly Uwe Boll, filled to the brim with grisly violence, flashy photography (though nothing beats the kinetics of House of the Dead’s cemetery shootout), and as much politically incorrect humor as possible, such as in a scene where Russo has had enough of Angela’s ‘wokey dokey’ progressive politics. Of course, if you already hate Boll, this probably won’t change your mind. But if you find something in Boll’s resilience to overcome the many tomatoes thrown at him, perhaps you’ll find some respect in a ‘comeback’ like First Shift.
Most of the movie focuses on Deo and Angela getting to know one another, and it’s not half-bad. Sure, some of the dialogue don’t feel particularly human (such as in a scene where Angela pressures Deo to reveal his past life, with non-stop uses of ‘why?’ being thrown at him), but the chemistry between Pesi and Renton is palpable enough, with the latter stealing the show as First Shift’s best performance. Her personality is quite attachable, and it’s not hard to care more for her than it is for her male counterpart (whom we see meticulously putting on his shoes, his watch, his belt with his badge on, and then slowly making his protein shake in the film’s very long, very tedious opening credits scene).
Still, Pesi manages to sell the character with his eyes, which makes us peer into his tormented psyche. He can reconnect with himself and perhaps soften up a little with Angela when he has to care for a dog, arguably the movie’s most human moment. None of these scenes are played cheaply, and his final conversation with the dog owner (played by Willie C. Carpenter) feels genuinely heartfelt. With scenes like these and rock-solid chemistry at the heart of First Shift, it’s not a disaster and certainly not unwatchable garbage. There are plenty of worse, more expensive films out there that take the audience members as complete fools (*coughsAlienRomuluscoughs*) and suckers them into buying a ticket for nothing more than blatant consumerist fodder that garishly resurrects dead people so the audience can artificially point and clap at a screen.
As deeply flawed as it is, Boll’s filmmaking always feels sincere, even if he’s offended many people (including flipping off audience members after the Kickstarter campaign for Rampage: President Down failed) throughout his career. He always tries to do something creative with his camera, especially in the supermarket collapse, even if it doesn’t work. So many filmmakers nowadays are seemingly afraid of trying. However, Boll has always found unconventional ways to create movement, even if the cinematography here is frequently overexposed and lacks any perception of space.
The rest of the movie isn’t particularly good, and many of its moving plot threads don’t go anywhere. In fact, this entire 89-minute picture can be summed up as patient worldbuilding in which we see two cops on their shift while a mob war is on the brink of starting, from the looks of its rather well-composed scene featuring Garry Pastore as what will likely be the franchise’s big bad. Oh yeah, Boll wants to make First Shift his next big franchise, ending the movie à la Kevin Costner’s Horizon: An American Saga – Chapter 1 with a short glimpse of First Shift: Part Two. Honestly, I’d much rather see Boll go all out with Postal 2 than another First Shift movie, especially when his style feels remarkably restrained here and not much in service of the film’s uneventful story.
But Boll already has another movie in the can, the migrant thriller Run (also starring Renton), and more in the works. Of course, many don’t want him to return to filmmaking, and his movies are always regarded as some of the worst ever made, which will make this particular comeback interesting in the eye of this critic who always had an appreciation for Boll’s no-nonsense demeanor and fearlessness of telling everyone he doesn’t like to “fuck off” (“and fuck you also,” as he remarkably jabs in Do Not Expect Too Much from the End of the World).
Is First Shift any good? Not really. Does it matter? Not really – Boll’s name will forever be etched in the “history of cinema.” His desire to continue making movies even if audience members don’t want him to (in 2008, a petition urging Boll to retire from moviemaking garnered over 1 million signatures) should honestly inspire as many as possible to continue doing what they love. Sure, First Shift isn’t a good movie and will likely be crucified by critics. But it’s also one of Boll’s most respectable works that wants to patiently reward the audience for sticking with its characters for an all-out event in Parts Two and Three. I doubt it will happen but it’s funny to see this much confidence realized nonetheless. I’d be lying if I said it isn’t fun to see Boll back in front (in Do Not Expect Too Much from the End of the World) and behind the camera again after he tipped his hat and walked away from that world during Rampage: President Down’s post-credits scene.
With First Shift, Uwe Boll seems to be having fun. So should you.
