First Shift (2 Stars)

A new film by Uwe Boll. Didn't he retire from film making? Yes. He gave up making movies eight years ago and went into the restaurant business. At the time he said it was because he'd done it all as a director and didn't need to prove himself any more. His critics put it differently. He was frequently called the world's worst director, and they said he was running away.

But now he's back.

I walked into the cinema today with the intention of liking the film. I like Uwe Boll. I've watched most of the videos in his YouTube channel, and he's a really nice guy. Forget your prejudices, he really is a nice guy. In Germany there's an expression, "Mit ihm kann man Pferde stehlen", engl. "You can steal horses with him". It's a strange expression, but it means someone with whom you can do anything. Whatever you do will be fun, and you can rely on him whatever happens. That's how I feel about Uwe.

For this reason I'm disappointed that I have to rate the film badly. It's about the first day on the job for Angela Dutton, a rookie police officer in New York. She also has a TikTok channel, and she films herself in the police station. She's assigned as the partner of Deo Russo, a serious no-nonsense cop. The film explores their relationship to one another.

This part of the film works well. Buddy movies with unequal partners have been common over the years, and Uwe Boll does it well. What he doesn't do is make an exciting movie. As a day in the life it can be expected that the film is disjointed, but he takes it too far. The parts don't fit. Just one example: two gang members kill a man who's betrayed their boss. A short while later Deo sees them in a convenience store, and he looks at them suspiciously. That's it. They leave the store, and they never see one another again. What's the point? I agree that it's realistic. Not every crime is solved. But why include it in the film at all?

I'm hoping his next film will be better.