Best movie of this year hands down!

The performances transcend the film's tropes, grounding it in characters that feel more complete than this subgenre often produces.

The movie's neither hopeful in contrived ways, nor hopeless in different contrived ways. Somehow it manages to be wonderful

The thing I enjoyed most about the film is the fact that it doesn't shy away from being a super-sized-cliche;

Stoic explores the question of weather or not prison turns minor offenders into hardened criminals, by telling a true story that happened in 2006. The story is most defiantly an eye opener, but the truth is that it doesn't make for a very good movie. Four inmates are trapped in the same cell, twenty-three hours a day. Most of them are in prison for minor offenses, with sentences ranging from six months to six years. As the men play cards, three get suspicious of the fourth, and once they decide he's a cheater, they begin to torture and humiliate the man until the next morning, when one of them winds up dead. Edward Furlong is the only actor of recognition in this film, usually one of my favorite actors, but even he has a hard time making this story work. The truth is that no matter the situation, anytime you place four guys in a room and watch them for an hour and a half, it's bound to get boring. Stoic goes to extreme lengths to be beyond boring, because of it's perfectionist director, Uwe Boll. Boll has a reputation of doing things his own way and being a perfectionist about it. The constant changing of the camera angles as well as the inmates telling their own stories in cutaways, is somewhat clever, but ultimately there really isn't much here to base a film on. Stoic was a good idea, that poses an important question, through a shockingly true story, but it lacks the substances needed to entertain an audience. In other words it was one big bore of a movie that you should absolutely avoid.

Let me first say I didn't rent this movie, one of my co-workers did. We work nights and he put the movie on, so I couldn't leave work to avoid this atrocity! I didn't watch the entire movie, but heard it all.This movie actually ended up creating a long debate (which we all agree was the point of the movie). I felt that this movie had merit with the story, and agree that it needed to be told, but the imagery was nothing more than shock and gore factor (I agree with other reviews that it borders on sadistic porn).In my option, a good director should be able to get a point across about how horrific something is, without having to resort to horrific images.The movie ended with some redeeming points, but over all this movie made me wonder what's wrong with human beings (both the criminals who originally committed the crimes, and the people involved in making this movie).

I won't go into discussing previous Boll Movies because it won't help talking about Stoic for its completely different at least from the trash I've seen by Boll. Stoic is a pretty straight movie about 4 guys in a prison cell and the dark automatics that group dynamics can take. The movie is pretty slow which makes sense because it follows all the little steps that lead to a giant disaster. It focuses on the 3 guys torturing their cell mates beginning with macho humiliation games that turn into a murder masked as a suicide. The visuals are gritty and the atmosphere is dark and kind of nihilistic, yet this movie is based on a true recent case in which the convicts were just around 20 years old. Stoic is no masterpiece, sure but its a movie that serves its purpose... the acting is believable, the inter-cut interview sequences with the depicted real events work, the atmosphere is cold and realistic in that the motivation by fear is pretty obvious for all involved. There are now winners here but luckily the picture painted is not black and white but a dark gray. I hate when cases like this one are put aside with the bare argument that the killers were "animals" or something like that because it almost never is simple like that. I like movies like Stoic for forcing the viewer to look at a side of humanity that is dormant in all of us until we are dropped into situations like the one depicted here and who knows if you or me wouldn't do things we can't think of now when fear messes up our rationality.I think the possibilities of group dynamics were depicted in a raw and realistic way... kind of reminded me of the bleak outcome in "Eden Lake". And in that it made me think after the credits rolled it sure was a good movie. I can understand if some people consider it too slow or too exploitative, yet I wouldn't say that myself. But a rating of 3 points with most reviews positive seems to finally prove that a lot of people really just hate Boll whatever he does. Up to now I saw no reason to argue for Boll but with this film I do since it is definitely far better than Bolls previous outputs.

First off - before I get to the movie itself... I just wanted to speak to the morons who ALWAYS automatically vote 1 for everything Boll does - without even watching the damn movie. Its just a really childish and insanely stupid thing to do.I personally have really enjoyed his past few films... you just never know what to expect when you sit down and watch a Uwe Boll movie and I commend that! In The Name of the King in particular for its insanely over-the-top obviously made to be laughed at entertainment. I mean really -- KING Burt Reynolds??? (best "last conversation before dying" scene I've ever watched... I laughed for like 15 minutes)... and a Ray Liotta Magi who constantly says the most hilarious stuff throughout the movie. And the choreography of the fight scenes was actually quite commendable (sadly not violent, but its all good) - anyways....... and then Seed, Postal, Tunnel Rats (best war movie I've seen in years - phenomenal flick) --- all 3 are fantastic movies in their own right. Far Cry was god awful and so was Alone in the Dark 2 (sorry Uwe) And then we have STOIC! - In the same dark/depressing vein that made Tunnel Rats such a kick ass movie... this thing takes you on a wild ride. A ride NOT for the squeamish to be more precise... and not for people who can only watch "Hollywood blockbuster" crap to be entertained. Thankyou to the other reviewer for this movie; I did not know most the movie was "improv" on the actors part and that's an incredibly awesome move on Bolls part to boot... gave the movie a feeling of reality you don't see much anymore. The last half hour in particular is some seriously intense stuff. The acting was also very good... after watching American History X like 19 times + Animal Factory (highly underrated movie), and of course Detroit Rock City + even Dark Reel was pretty damn entertaining... I've always really liked Furlong -- and I'm really happy to see him again in top form. The other actors too were excellent; especially Sam Levinson as the most sympathetic/remorseful of them all.So go find this movie and watch it - then find Tunnel Rats and watch that... and then STOP giving this man the automatic 1's he does not deserve (except for maybe Far Cry... dude, that was just BAD)!!!