Red 11

Knowing that this was made with under $7,000 budget made it worth while. Very creative with angles, shading/lighting, zoom, handheld vs stable cam, etc. You need to know the why for making this film to appreciate it... Also loved the "Score" character with his digital keyboard.

Given the fact that this movie was made for $7,000 dollars as a way to show the viewer how they can make a low budget movie, it's quite good. The entire movie is very tongue in cheek, a fact that seems to be missed by the (I'm guessing) Millennial viewers.

The movie is meant to be paired with the Robert Rodriguez Film School series of videos. Still, the movie stands on its on as enjoyable low budget fun. The acting, story and production are good enough to the carry the film. It has a good twist and a satisfying ending. You won't feel ripped off for sitting through the very quick, under an hour and a half run time. If you're an aspiring film maker you may find it inspiring!

Back then it was fairly well known that Rodriguez's first movie, 'El Mariachi' in 1992, when he was only 24. I will not repeat that he made it for only $7000. In today's money that would be almost $15,000, still a small amount for a feature film, and a very good one at that. I really like 'El Mariachi.'

This movie, "Red 11", might be based on how he earned that $7000, I'm not sure. He enters a medical test group sorted by colors of the shirt they are assigned, his is red and he is number 11. He is "Red 11". But as this fictional story unfolds things get stranger and stranger. Too strange often.

I considered abandoning this, free on streaming, at about the half-way point but persisted because in general I really like some of his movies. Spy Kids and Sin City are a couple. But as he has gotten older his movies have gotten stranger, like Machete (which I rate '4') and a few others.

I can't rate 'Red 11' very highly, it just isn't that good a story even though there is a 'twist' reveal at the end. I found myself thinking "so what?" A nice experiment and perhaps really good to illustrate some film school film-making points, but for the general audience I'd have a hard time recommending it to anyone I know.

Clearly someone had an agenda here. 300+ ratings of this movie keeping the movie in the 4 range, but only 5 reviews from people who actually watched it and it gets mostly 7's (which it deserves). This was a creative, nicely done movie used as much as teaching tool for young filmmakers to once again show you how to do everything yourself so that you do not need large amounts of money in order to follow your dreams of being a filmmaker. As the intro that most versions of this film contain, Rodriguez tells us there is an accompanying documentary shot as he filmed it so that you can literally see how to film, light, edit, etc, on a budget and still come away with something good. It doesn't hurt to be able to write a good script to go along with all that but that's a whole other learning experience. Don't look at the ratings and pass. Give this movie a chance. It's fun, it's clever, it's creative and I've seen worse acting from larger budget films. And if you're into that kind of thing, definitely stick around for the documentary if it's available on your version.

Ok so you watch the trailer not read reviews first. That's my advice . This movie is fresh, fast paced, exciting and just a really enjoyable film. Great Effort from the cast..and kept me in suspense right up to end. Again low budget but hey they did well!