In my opinion this movie deserves a much higher rating then it has received. The acting is phenomenal, the directing is above par to most of Boll's movies and it is overall a good movie. But, to me it was a little too much. I've had my fair share in movies but this was a cut above the rest. Very graphic, very realistic and overall I found it very hard to watch. How the 3 prisoners beat, rape, degrade and humiliate one of the other fellow inmates to the point where they fake his suicide is very unsettling and believable. The ending is also very upsetting. One of Uwe Boll's best movies to date as well as Rampage. Great performances. I wouldn't recommend this movie due to its graphic content but it is a very good movie that deserves a higher rating then 4.7/10.

I watched two Uwe Boll movies in the past 24 hours (the other being Rampage) most primarily because they were both available for free streaming through Netflix as a result of their direct-to-video release (which is not a good sign). Let me say, unequivocally that Uwe Boll should never be allowed to direct another film. Period! He has besmirched the good names of countless video game franchises, and now he has taken a stab at a serious story. Prison movies have a knack for being easy home-runs for directors (see Shawshank Redemption, Escape from Alcatraz, American History X, The Green Mile, etc.) But somehow, Boll has ineptly chosen a story which relies almost entirely on shock-value to upset the viewer into thinking they have watched something of substance. At its best the film is ridiculous, and at its worst it borders on "gore porn." By the way, where the heck are the prison guards? I have a friend or two who have spent some time in lock-up, and they've informed me that it's nearly impossible to pick your nose without a C.O. peeking in on you. The idea that these guys somehow turned their cell into a 10 hour non-stop torture oasis is laughable. It just couldn't happen. The story makes no sense. There are an infinite number of bad stories out there, but only a handful of directors incompetent enough to think of making one into a movie. The reason this film gets two stars rather than one is because Edward Furlong reminds me of his hey-day in T2: Judgment Day. That, and that alone, is the redeeming factor in this film.

I have always been a big fan of eddie furlong's so when i saw his name on the cover of this film at the video store i of course wanted to rent it, that is until i saw who had directed it now i know the very large stigma that comes with anything uwe boll directs but never the less i rented it anyway hoping that perhaps it would not be the same as some of his other films i have seen.Wow. just wow, i don't really know how to explain my feelings on this film. Firstly i would like to say that this is in no means what so ever a bad film it is in fact the opposite, it blew me away. I was incredibly surprised at how quickly it had drawn me in, the acting was impeccable and the story absolutely heartbreaking. Certain scenes had me sitting in front of my television mouth agape with tears in my eyes which is very unexpected from a Uwe Boll film.I am absolutely serious when i say watch this film, it will make up for a lot of the disappointments that came from his previous works. This movie says a lot about the human condition and the things we will do to save our own asses.

Now, I am familiar with the director's questionable reputation and I am aware that Uwe Boll bashing is quite a popular sport on Internet forums (heck, I also agree that most of his movies are utter rubbish), but there are a couple of remarkable things about this man's career that you can't possibly neglect and even have to admire in some strange sort of way. First of all, the man is a hard laborer. Few directors have released an average of four movies per year, especially when they also write and produce their own garbage. Secondly, Boll's repertoire is getting more and more versatile and accessible to wider audiences lately. Initially he specialized in adaptations of gory video games, but recently he made cynical comedies ("Postal") as well as action flicks ("Far Cry") and gritty thrillers ("Seed"). And then last but not least, the man is not ashamed to experiment, innovate and – if necessary – to blunder ingloriously. This newly released movie "Stoic", for example, all things considered it turned out a failure, but nevertheless a mild and intriguing one with still a whole lot of merits and praiseworthy factors. I feel I should start with a warning to the squeamish, as "Stoic" is a deeply unpleasant movie with an unceasingly guttural atmosphere and a large amount of inhumanly barbarous shock sequences. At the Fantastic Film Festival in my native country, where Uwe Boll and lead actor Edward Furlong came to introduce the film themselves, several people walked out of the theater because they couldn't cope with the harshness of certain bits of footage. I realize this works as a recommendation more than as a warning, but be advised this is not a movie for everyone. You'll notice during the opening sequences, or here on the film's website page as well, that nobody is credited for writing "Stoic". That is simply because there isn't a screenplay. Uwe Boll based the concept on true events as they occurred in a German prison in 2006 and only gave the most principal of instructions as his cast of four improvised all their lines and dialogs at the spot. This is obviously a risky undertaking, but admittedly it suits the tone of the film which is primitive and raw. Four petty criminals share a minuscule cell and spend most of their days playing poker and exchanging stories on how bad-ass they are. One day, a game of poker runs out of hand and the mentally weakest of the four – Mitch – loses a bet which ordered him to eat a complete tube of toothpaste. He stubbornly refuses and the other three team up against him. What starts out as a silly macho contest quickly escalates into a sick-spirited and vile series of humiliation, torture, vicious rape, mutilation and eventually inflicted suicide. "Stoic" is imaginatively structured, with interview scenes of the three culprits mixed with the footage of what actually happened inside those four prison walls. Initially the three convicts claim it was an ordinary case of suicide, but the truth gradually comes to the surface as they only want to protect themselves and begin to blame the other ones of having the lead. The main malfunction of this movie is that it actually has no reason of existence. It's an exploitative and unimaginably gratuitous piece of torture-porn without added psychological or socialist value whatsoever. Boll pretends to give an insight in human behavior, but basically only stills his own personal hunger for sleaze and violence. We only know the formula is based on true events, but this film draws its own conclusions that are unquestionably far more sensational and grotesque than what really happened. There clearly went very little research into this production prior to shooting, so it would be immensely hypocritical to label "Stoic" as a dramatic portrait of our modern day prison system. Nevertheless I don't want to criticize Mr. Boll's accomplishment any further, as he definitely improved a great deal when it comes to directorial skills and competence. You can sense that he was in control of his filming set and had the luck of working with four adequate young actors, including Edward Furlong and Sam Levinson. "Stoic" is a mean and uncomfortable film that I don't exactly intend to watch again any time soon, but it's undeniably a memorable and out-of-the-ordinary experience.