Assault on Wall Street

It annoys me to no end when a movie starts off with a horribly skewed and incorrect premise. The overview in the beginning of the movie starts talking about the housing market loan "crisis." The only problem is that the director makes it sound like the situation was solely caused by "greedy bankers." That's nice, but it's completely false. The government, in its infinite large-government-mindset wisdom, decided it knows better than economists, and decided to effectively force banks through tax breaks and "incentives" to give loans out to people who can't actually afford them (in particular, to minority groups). Democrats pushed this legislation/regulation, and Republicans got on board since both Democrats and Republicans are owned politically by bankers. There's also overtones (and explicit statements) that blame everything on capitalism and the free market. This is also nonsense. A fiat economy, with a central bank, and a fractional reserve system goes against capitalism and the free market. Not all regulation is good. This is the reality of big government and regulation that liberals nor conservatives will tell you about. The only redeeming part of this movie is watching someone enact justice on Wall Street, but he forgot to head to Washington afterwards and enact justice on the people that started it all.

= = = The film is pretty much everything you expect it to be: a man worked over by the system that eventually snaps. Sound familiar? But scene to scene build up, it is very repetitive. The scenes get quite boring and we are watching and thinking "hurry up and get to the action!" But, the action is quite anti-climactic. It is dull, and the special effects? Well, there were none! The effects were made on a string here! = = = On the ideas front - it is all pretty basic. Nothing new. Although, in my opinion the writers have written an ideology that lays all the blame for the economy on our main protagonist. The dialogue attempts to explain what has happened. There are nice scenes with the 4 guys and here we meet a lot of the dialogue. Yes, lines like, "it is just gambling..." and "this is what happens when you gamble with investment..." etc., Yeah, it is simple - but underlying these words is the idea of blame and fault AND with the 99% blaming the 1%, this film does not shy away from saying it was the 99% that were to blame. = = = Don't agree? Watch it and see! Also husband and wife refer to each other as "girl" and "boy" and without reading too much into this (!) It is encoding the characters - as children! I watched it quite early and maybe I was slightly jaded, or the film made me jaded. But I couldn't wait to get to the action and then the end! Cheers.

I am compelled to write this review because I am completely disgusted by all those biased reviews written by people who let their predisposed opinions about the director or the actor dictate their feeling towards the film. I am not a fan of Uwe Boll but I don't agree with a lot of the nasty stuff people put out there. I know people are entitled to their opinion but I also know that we can become better at what we do. With all that said, I was genuinely surprised by the amount of emotion put into this film. The acting was superb. Dominic Purcell does a great job playing an average individual, Jim, a loving husband who is desperately trying to survive in a world full of greed. It is hard for anyone not to feel for Jim as injustice and greed gradually consumes his everything and pushes him closer and closer into the world of evil. Erin Karpluk does a great job portraying a loving wife whose unfortunate destiny is worsened by the flaws of capitalism. All others minor characters all did their best to help the audience understand the difference between good and evil. I don't understand why people think Dominic Purcell is a bad actor, I really think he is one of the few action stars who can be tough yet full of emotions at the same time. While there were no major flaws in acting, the plot does suffer some major setbacks. Since I don't want to spoil anything, let me just say I didn't think any of those was a major distraction to the movie but they were somewhat noticeable. Overall, the story might be a bit too straightforward to some people and the ending twist which may or may not fit everyone's taste, the great acting should keep you entertained throughout. Quick note, if you are watching it with a kid, please make sure to explain the role of violence and the importance of consequence and blah blah blah. This movie can be too deep for kids. To conclude, please watch this movie with an open mind. Do not blindly hate it because of Uwe Boll's history as a director and do not love it simply because of it's an bloody revenge towards Wall Street greed.