VANCOUVER, B.C. – Tired of the criticism of his films, controversial German film director Uwe Boll took on four of his critics in a Vancouver boxing ring, and ended each bout with a knockout.
The director of the vampire flick “BloodRayne,” based on a video game and starring Kristanna Loken and Ben Kingsley, issued a fight challenge to his critics several months ago. Fifteen responded.
“I like now the critics,” Boll told a news conference after the fights on Saturday. “Everybody who was in the ring showed (guts). Nobody dived.
“If they write about my movies without even seeing the movies, then it’s really annoying. If you make a movie like ‘House of the Dead,’ a zombie movie, what are they expecting? ‘Schindler’s List’?”
First in the ring with the director – now dubbed “Raging” Boll – was Richard Kyanka of Lee’s Summit, Mo., webmaster of www.somethingawful.com. He entered the ring clad in Stars and Stripes shorts.
“You are harboring a terrorist,” he said of Boll to the Canadian crowd of about 600. “You are all guilty.” Boll, grim-faced, KO’d him in the first round.
Jeff Sneider of Los Angeles, a journalist with Ain’t It Cool News, went down in a technical knockout in the first round after his trainer threw in the towel.
He said Boll, 41, had told him it was just a joke, a public relations stunt.
“Then he started beating the crap out of my head,” he said. “I think he’s a jerk. This might be PR, but I don’t want to keep getting punched in the head.”
Chris Alexander of Toronto, Ontario, a horror-move journalist with Rue Morgue radio and magazine, also went down in a knockout, but not before making an artistic statement.
While on the receiving end of a series of blows to the head, Alexander took Boll aback when a stream of blood spewed from his mouth. It turned out Alexander had taken a page from Boll’s filmmaking book; the blood was fake.
“I had the fake blood in reserve,” he explained.
“I spat it out. I freaked him out exactly like I wanted to do, it was poetry. It was my Jedi mind trick to try and disorient him.”
He said he got in a punch for each of Boll’s bad films. “I think I got him once in the face for ‘Alone in the Dark’ and I got maybe one or two for ‘BloodRayne.’” Alexander said. “I have absolutely no … regrets. … This is the weirdest pop culture bizarre journalism stunt I’ve ever been involved in.”
Nelson Chance Mintner, 17, a web site critic from Fredrick, Md., was the youngest fighter. He also lost by technical knockout.
Actress Loken was in the audience for the bouts. “It’s absolutely ridiculous. That’s why I love him,” she said.
Boll’s next picture is “In the Name of the King: A Dungeon Siege Tale.” Like “BloodRayne,” it’s also based on a video game. It features Loken again, as well as Jason Statham, John Rhys-Davies, Ray Liotta, Matthew Lillard, Leelee Sobieski, Claire Forlani and Burt Reynolds.
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