Red State

This action-horror film changes directions about once every 15 minutes. On the whole, I enjoyed it.

The downside is that every twist kills the momentum. There's not much continuity, and the last five minutes or so are quite arbitrary. I was expecting something to tie it together at the end, but there was nothing like that.

It's never dull. Instead of a gradual build up, this film dives into the action fairly quickly and never slows down. I enjoyed it as a way to burn a few brain cells.

...I have to write more lines to get this review to post. There's a bit of classic Kevin Smith dialogue at the beginning. It's nothing brilliant, but it's fun.

Always amazed to see the variety of reviews. How one can watch this and compare it to a Scooby Doo movie or call it a Bollywood knock-off, and others view is a critically acclaimed. Ahhh, the eye of the beholder.

Anyway, I enjoyed it for Kevin Smith's screen writing and the performances of Parks, Leo, Goodman, and Bishe. Parks' gospel singing was a plus.

It's not horror; it's not Tarantino. It's Kevin Smith. He's great at writing irony and duality in specific circumstances. There isn't character development, just characters that express themselves. I care about them because of what they have said, not what was said about them.

And how can you not love the Goodman soliloquy about the bloodhounds.

Just watch it. Like Smith says in his "Making of ..." video, what may seem like a bad movie for $20 in a theater cane be a favorite movie when you see it in five hours at home.

OK, so as part of Kevin Smith's guerrilla marketing campaign for this movie, it aired on PPV in the US last night. That means that it was on the torrentnet this morning, and as a result I got to watch it in Europe tonight. I'm still reeling from the experience.

I mean, we are talking Kevin Smith, king of the slacker movies, but at the same time the creator of one of the most intelligent and well-done movies about religion ever made, "Dogma." I have seen every one of Kevin Smith's films, some of them multiple times. But as much as I like the guy, I've never found myself asking, "What would happen if this guy decided to step away from the slacker comedy and make a serious movie -- a horror movie about America, as he sees it?" I never saw this movie coming.

"Red State" is at its heart a horror movie. It starts by playing to horror movie conventions. Three teenaged guys, off for a night of fun in a neighboring Southern town, follow an Internet ad promising them a three-way with a willing older woman, and as a result wander into the WRONG Southern town. This town is the home of a Chrisschun religious cult, and they placed the ad. Try to imagine what the gay-hating and sex-hating Westboro Baptist Church would be like if they decided to take God's Law into their own hands and start killing the sinners themselves. Then try to imagine the situation escalating into a machine-gun-fire standoff with the ATF. What makes this such a good horror movie is that the horror could actually happen in the US. Everything about this movie is shocking *because it could actually happen*.

Kevin Smith is a closet politco. Who knew? This is a very, very, very powerful movie, about the hell that the United States of America has descended into post-9/11. It is SO not a comedy, although it contains very funny moments, and it is SO not for the faint-hearted, or for those who lean heavily to the right politically, or who believe that doing so is synonymous with leaning to the Right. God's Right.

With this film, Kevin Smith has risen to the top of my list of People I Most Want To Share Two Too Many Beers With Just So I Can Talk With Them.

OK. So after reading the other reviews and deciding to watch this based on the positive reports, I feel compelled to offer a more realistic review.

First of all, this is not the masterpiece it's made out to be. A lot of Kevin Smith fanboys seem reluctant to give him a bad review.

So here we go, it's a bit of a mess really. It seems to be getting a lot of praise for switching genres but honestly, it just comes across as confused. Yes, the performances are pretty good and some of the camera work is exceptional (the escape/chase scene is noteworthy) but overall it's almost like three films in one. This might sound like a good thing but not the way it's presented here.

And as for everybody trying to get clever over the title, the meaning is pretty clear to me. It refers to both the political and the government angle that the authorities can lock any suspected terrorist up for an indefinite time. A la communist/red states.

Overall, some good performances, memorable dialogue and decent cinematography fail to save this confused mess.

I know, there are many directing flaws here, particularly with the overly long preaching sermons given by the lunatic pastor in this story, but the story itself does bear some credence. The casting was well chosen, and they certainly lived up to the characters they portrayed.

The one take away comment I'll offer at this juncture is that this film is truly terrifying, is definitely not for the faint of heart, not because of excessive gratuitous violence and such, which there really is not that much of, but in the depiction of the scenario, culture and characters that are represented.

I have seen and met, first hand, lunatic nut case religious fanatics, which almost perfectly match what is presented in Red State, because I have traveled through and have spent some time in "red state" areas. As far as I'm concerned, this film has captured exactly what these types of areas and fanatical religious entities are like. Trust me on this one . . . been there, done that.

Maybe this entire film seems too over the top cliché', stereotypical over dramatization and simplistic rendering of this type of culture and its purveyors of bigotry and hate, but before one makes too hasty an evaluation along such lines, I would suggest you have not seen what I have.

Just for reference, I am not gay, and this is not what my commentary is about. My commentary is oriented toward the predatory social pathology of fanatical extremist religion, an unfortunately all too common form of a serious mental disorder with often horrific consequences which can be witnessed here, in the USA to this very day, in the 21st century.

As for other reviews here, yes there are flaws, and given the opportunity that this story could have provided for a truly great film, yes, it did fall a bit short. Having said that, however, this was not an overtly bad film either, and considering what is portrayed and how it was presented, I still grant Red State a fairly high rating.

There have certainly been far worse films with completely absurd, irrelevant stories which have received rave reviews, so I would advise a bit of caution in how some of the other reviews here should be taken.

Given all that . . . 7 stars for Red State