Frederick Maryland Online

I was reading Wired magazine when I ran across this article.

Web Geeks love to hate Uwe Boll, the German director behind the film adaptations of the video games The House of the Dead, BloodRayne and Alone in the Dark. Out of 350,000-plus films rated by users of the Internet Movie Database, Boll’s game flicks all rank in the bottom 100. “He’s a taint on the genre film community!” thunders Ain’t It Cool News. One angry viewer purchased uweboll.com and posted a single-line entreaty: “Please stop making movies.”

Last June, Boll decided he’d had enough. A onetime amateur boxer, he decided to challenge his critics to a fight. He issued a press release that was quickly posted and reposted on nearly every gaming and movie site on the Web: “If critics want to bring Uwe Boll down,” it read, “here is their chance to physically bring him down and have the entire world watch them do it.” Four courageous – or is it crazy? – souls stepped forward. Here are some images from the infamous night of boxing matches that has come to be known as “the Maneuver in Vancouver.”

One of the four contenders was Chance Minter, a 17-year-old from Frederick, Maryland.

Before the fight, Minter got pumped up by listening to the theme song from Conan the Barbarian on his iPod. “Boll’s really wild, more of a brawler than a fighter,” he says. “His jab is weak. He tries to get close so he can swing wide. I’m just gonna go out there and do my thing.”

Minter had never written anything – bad or good – about the director when he asked to take part in the challenge. Nonetheless, Boll waived the rules and let him in. Minter has six months of boxing experience, rendering him the most formidable challenger of the night.

The final fight begins. Boll is ferocious, maybe because his opponent has a modicum of fighting experience or maybe because he no longer needs to hold anything in reserve. Minter gets in a few good shots, but then seizes up. He stops moving and keeps his hands locked in front of his face. Boll goes to work on the teenager’s unprotected rib cage and kidneys.

“Move around, Chance! Hit back!” shrieks Minter’s mom, who accompanied him to Vancouver. As the Teutonic Terror doles out dozens of punishing body blows, a line from Conan comes to mind. It’s the scene where a loincloth-wearing Arnold Schwarzenegger describes every barbarian’s raison d’être: “to crush your enemies, see them driven before you, and to hear the lamentations of the women!”

Minter’s mom rushes to the ring to stop the fight, but it’s already over – Minter’s cornerman has intervened. She leans against the ropes, head in hands, as Paré declares Boll the winner by technical knockout.

Pretty cool! Read the whole article.

~Guy~