Heart of America (2002)

I have a weakness for school-shooter movies. As well as the fascinating real-life instances they are based on, namely the Columbine massacre. There's a lot to explore when it comes to mass shootings - especially the increasingly common 'trend' of fastidiously orchestrated school shootings - such as, whether it was fueled by cruelty from their peers or just succumbing to a torpid mental illness or depression that no one could possibly detect prior to a violent outburst. Or maybe they ARE influenced by movies, music or video games. There's no shortage of questions a panic-stricken society has when faced with one of these cases, primarily when troubled adolescents are revealed as the 'offenders'. Quite a few films have been made on the subject - most notably is Gus Van Sant's "Elephant" - an averse 'mood piece' depicting blank-faced characters being mowed down by machine gun toting closeted gay nerds and the loose recreation of the Columbine duo's unreleased "Basement Tapes", titled "Zero Day". For some reason, "Heart of America" passed by my radar for quite some time, but upon learning of it, I was pretty stoked to check it out since Mr. Uwe "fuck you, I'll fight you" Boll was behind it. And... unfortunately, it's not what I was hoping for...

The movie revolves around a wide range of high school seniors and their teachers going about their last day of the school year. The central focus is a ruthlessly bullied kid who wants his equally abused friend to accompany him on a retributive killing spree throughout the school as a way of "leaving their mark". Other characters include the smug jock who crassly breaks up with his girlfriend cuz she won't put out. The sadistic bully who has an 'awakening' of guilt (too little too late...). Rich goth girl smoking meth on the roof. Teacher taking out his creative shortcomings on his students. Kid who knocked up his girlfriend having a dull argument...

Problem is that most of this shit doesn't matter in the end, yet it takes up the majority of the film. The school drug dealer getting shook down by the guidance counselor didn't matter AT ALL and the whole retard-rape flashback was too over-the-top gratuitious and also took up too much time. Then, the 'big' end massacre was pretty brief and unfulfilling, aside from an ironic 'twist' in which the clueless media praises one of the bullies as a hero - claiming he's proof that "there is hope for America's youth".

Overall, "Heart of America" is pretty weak. I guess I was hoping for something a little more 'balls out' and raucous out of Uwe Boll, but he DID deliver the 'goods' seven years later with "Rampage". So check that out and check out "Zero Day" or the excellent and highly offensive school-shooter black comedy, "Duck! The Carbine High Massacre" instead of this.