Cult film director hits back at critics - in the boxing ring

Uwe Boll, the German cult film director renowned for making "garbage movies with B actors", summoned his critics to a boxing ring and promptly knocked all of them out in a series of highly publicised fights at the weekend designed to stop journalists "trashing" his work.

Boll, 41, who makes horror films based on video games and low-budget zombie movies including House of the Dead and Alone in the Dark , has suffered a barrage of merciless criticism from film buffs who have accused him of being one of the "most inept film-makers ever". His critics have even started an online petition in an attempt to stop him making films.

Last month the director decided he had had enough and challenged five of his detractors to a gloves-on fight in a boxing ring. One fight took place in Malaga, earlier this month. The other four critics were subjected to a hail of blows from Boll at an outdoor venue in Vancouver at the weekend.

At a spectacle attended by 600 fans, accompanied by deafening German techno music, the director took all four of his critics to task. One of his opponents, the journalist Chris Alexander, stunned the crowd by spitting out fake blood after taking a punch from Boll. He claimed afterwards that the blood was "revenge" for Boll's latest film, BloodRayne, a vampire movie starring Ben Kingsley. Michael Madsen, Billy Zane and Meat Loaf.

All four of Boll's challengers retired exhausted to their corners after being beaten in a series of technical knockouts. Jeff Sneider, a Los Angeles journalist and frequent critic of the film-maker said: "He started beating the crap out of my head. This might be PR but I don't want to keep getting punched in the head."

Another of Boll's critics, Richard Kyanka, who retired after two minutes of fighting, said: "I feel great. I feel like a very angry German man punched me in the head repeatedly."

Boll, who has trained as a boxer, said afterwards: "Now I like the critics. Everybody who was in the ring showed balls. See what happens when they take a blow to the head? - they like my movies."

Boll said the main reason for his lavish PR spectacle was to try and persuade journalists who hadn't even seen his films to stop "trashing" his work. "If you are making a zombie movie like House of the Dead what are people expecting? Schindler's List? It is what it is: it's entertaining," he said.