J. Davis You know for a while into the film I was re-examining my own behavior towards "easy targets" when locked up, as it is a habit to "bid" off of other people's misery in whatever way possible for amusement when stuck in such a dire environment. Whether you're the perpetrator or just having fun watching the "kid's play" for lack of a better term, it's a part of ANY prison system and in some cases I'd like to think I'm responsible for at least one person never going back, BUT obviously what happened in this prison just does not happen in 99.99% of cases. In a larger group dynamic this situation wouldn't even be possible, you could get beaten up, raped & shanked but not this type of situation, you need to have the perfect storm of personality traits for this. The people in this cell were just the right/wrong mix with the wrong string of events. Some people have mentioned being shocked that this was a juvenile facility when in truth this bizarre event could likely only have transpired in an environment housing young offenders. Furlong plays the all around amoral scumbag(himself in a nutshell)who is mixed with the violent skinhead(Mennekes). Combine them with the kid Peter(Levinson) who was really just happy having someone below him on the totem pole to keep the bidding off of him, innocently aggravates the already poor situation for Mitch the cell bitch(Sipos). When the skinhead Jack ratchets things up to an insane level, the scumbag Harry, unaffected at the level that the skinhead has went to, gives Mitch the broomstick treatment, why? For the hell of it, in his mind, why not was likely the only reason for his motivation. Suddenly, the stakes are raised well above Peter's comfort area, so he, out of an act of pure self preservation tries his damnedest to work with what little handle he had on the situation(which was slightly less than zero). Out of desperation he throws out the hanging theory, in his mind it was either appease his cellies or it would be him on the other end of the broomstick or worse, he's just witnessed what they were capable of. If that was as accurate of a portrayal as I've heard then I actually have some sympathy for him, it appears he was put in a situation far beyond his control. In the end I think they were all sentenced very properly. So many times when someone is killed and there are multiple defendants they charge everyone as equals & even often try them as one. In this case it could have easily went that way, but instead they did happen to show some leniency on Peter for his case.I know I failed to mention the writer/director. Being based on a factual account, I felt the manner in which it was filmed worked very well, going without scripts for much of it. It's not a very satisfying watch, there is very little entertainment value to be had in a telling of this tale regardless of who directs it. I usually don't review old films but after hitting Boll's latest Assault on Wall Street(2013) and getting pleasantly surprised I cracked open the Boll vault & had me a second look. I had COMPLETELY written him off after seeing a few really unsavory early films of his and I'm glad I took a look after seeing Rampage, Seed, Postal, Darfur and now Stoic. When adding his latest flick Assault on Wall Street it actually makes for a decent looking six pack. Who knew? A month ago I would have called him an irredeemable hack. I know, I know, put a batting helmet on a blind person and you're bound to make contact with the ball a few times.

Markery It's very rare for me to watch a movie rated below 5 stars on IMDb. But I have only watched one of Uwe Boll's films; Rampage. Which I loved. So I thought I would give this one a shot, and I was extremely surprised. This movie triumphs movies I've watched with a 7 star rating. The movie has a way a putting you in with those cell mates on that night when a poker game goes awry, seriously awry. You see the struggle for power, and how far they will actually go to maintain their stature in the hierarchy. It's interesting to see the confessions play linearly to it, and how their story changes as the movie progresses. And I loved the acting, it was fantastic. So all I have to say, is if you wanna see a horrific and heart wrenching night in a prison cell, watch this film.

bob_meg I don't really get all the Uwe Boll bashers out there. I don't watch his video game films because, quite frankly, I think if you want to have a video game experience you should PLAY a video game. Call me crazy.I watched "Stoic" because I loved "Rampage"---I loved the originality of it, I admired it's clarity of vision, and I liked the outlandishness of the piece. Boll's "I-don't-give-a-f***" attitude definitely did show through in that hyper-violent orgasm and it does so again with "Stoic."What's odd about "Stoic" is that it would almost play better as a stage production. It's based on a real event that occurred in a German prison, where a harmless dare escalated into deadly consequence. It's really pretty simple, as Sam Levinson states in the preamble: "This system doesn't work!" And why should it? You put four guys in one small room, with varying degrees of maladaptive personalities, subject them to endless tedium and little activity---what do you think would happen? There is a reason why most US prisons don't do four-to-a-cell, after all.The acting is very good for the most part (Levinson gets a bit melodramatic, but it's passable). Furlong is creepily chilling in his passive-aggressiveness. It's not the type of movie that generates a lot of tension (probably why few people like it). It does generate DREAD however and it isn't pleasant to watch even in a sicko-torture-porn type of way...there are no "oh wow" EFX...it's just...degrading. Would I watch it again? Probably not. Would I recommend it to my parents? Hell no.Yet, I find myself giving it a relatively high-score. For those interested in how group dynamics tend to obliterate the ability or desire to think for one's self, "Stoic" is an relatively bold statement. One wonders if Boll was thinking of his rubber-stamping detractors when he made it.

Steve Pulaski Let me start off by saying this is the lowest rating I have ever given a movie. Thats just how bad it is. To begin with, it's not a film. More like mindless snuff and torture porn elements that will make you puke. This doesn't qualify as a film. It simply is something you make for fun, or just to show how ignorant you are. What a cruel, and distasteful film. With bad acting and directing from, god help us, Uwe Boll.Uwe Boll has been criticized for the worst director of all time. In which is a dubious honor, but must be awarded, like all, in opinion. I have to say anyone who thinks Boll's directing or overall work is great needs to watch this trash. Its a cold and heartless "movie" that is just the worst you can expect from anybody. Even Uwe Boll.The film is supposedly a non-fiction tale about four cellmates who get into a heated poker game which results in the quiet cellmate not living up to his bet of eating an entire tube of toothpaste if he looses the hand. He is brutally beaten and forced the toothpaste down his throat. That is only the icing on the abuse cake. He is rapes, beaten, mutilated, and left for dead in most cases. What kind of film is this? A crappy, low class mess that should've been scrapped when the idea was pitched.I honestly had to blink twice to see that Edward Furlong. Funny man from Detroit Rock City is in this crap. Honestly, I couldn't believe it. Maybe those drug problems gave him some bad karma. Who knows. Stoic is one of the few Uwe Boll films that is not based off a video game of the same name or concept. If this was a video game I couldn't expect it being banned seeing the movie wasn't. Althoug, I don't think the goal of raping and mutilating a man for no good reason is a great concept for a film.My uncle warned me about this film, but since I'm an idiot, I must see or have the "forbidden fruit". If he said this movie caused Cancer I would have watched it. I'm sorry to say this, and would hate to again. He was right. The film sucked. An easy candidate for the worst film of 2009, and a possible candidate for the top five worst films ever.Starring: Edward Furlong, Shaun Sipos, Sam Levinson, and Steffen Mennekes. Directed by: Uwe Boll.