Kevin Smith, if you are reading this, then recognize how hard it is for me to say this: Red State isn't perfect, but it's got enough good ideas going for it, that it makes what could have been average seem slightly better, and I didn't enjoy watching it as much as I wanted to, but I am glad I did see it.
For Everybody else, Red State follows three kids, all generic no-names, who find a website that allows them to find women who are more than willing to fool around. As such, they set out to meet with said stranger, finding out the next day that the person that has drugged and is holding them captive is actually Abin Cooper's Five Points Church, a cult based off of Fred Phelps and the Westboro Baptist Church from Kansas.
The movie has an intro, a middle and an end, and it's sad to say that both the middle and intro lack so much character and definition from Smith's previous movies that if you didn't recognize it was a Kevin Smith film from the beginning, you'd assume it was some random pulp exploitation picture made by a bunch of no names starring Melissa Leo, Michael Parks and John Goodman and a bunch of kids in movies you've probably never seen.
The movie had so much riding on it, from the moment Kevin announced it, I was on board. I've been a Kevin Smith fan for some time, perhaps not as long as most fans, but I still enjoy his work. However, when he made this movie, it didn't feel as strong as a Kevin Smith film or even a horror film, for that matter.
The villianry of Abin Cooper's flock comes off as silly in some parts, and it's sad that it had to be done in such a cut-paste style of other cult pictures. An Example has a man being executed and one of the members starts chanting, "Send the Sinners straight to hell", and while not a poor delivery, it's so cliché that it took me out of the picture. Not to mention, nearly the entire flock sport accents that sound native to the deep south and again, hearing phrases like, "I'll take care of it, Daddy", seem comical, which is wrong, because it shouldn't be so funny, but it breaks the flow because the accent and the nonchalant delivery makes it seem so average.
None of the characters have backgrounds, being more caricatures than people. The saving graces (A term I use lightly) of the picture are the actors, who do a fine enough job with what is written in front of them. Michael Parks in some scenes tries to act with dialog that's rather wooden, where I get the feeling if he were allowed to ham the performance up, it might have made the character seem more villainous. He does have some moments, such as when he's surrounded by death all around him, Parks makes Abin seem so detached that all he does is remark how the Bible says they did good. Not to mention, a real tense scene with Abin talking to a cop over a radio was the type of evil that really needed to be within the whole picture.
Melissa Leo does as good as she can, most of her scenes have her doing the kind of overacting that made Raul Julia's performance in 1994's "Street Fighter" fantastic.
The film sadly squanders the other actors, John Goodman, Kevin Pollak and Stephen Root do what they can, and of the time they are on screen, they don't do too much.
The problems with the film are simple: if you have a villain that's toted as "so bad, Nazis don't even want to have their politics associated with them", It would help if we got some kind of indicator, instead of lots of talking.
However, the ending is probably going to be the polarizer of the year. I actually like the ending, because of the way Smith ends the picture, it's an ending that people should follow whenever we see the WBC protesting for one reason of another. Short of that, the first two halves of the film don't make the picture seem anything more than generic, the horror isn't horrifying enough and the action is nearly non-existent.
I will say as a Kevin Smith fan, however, don't watch the film expecting "Clerks" or anything living within the View-Askew universe. I recommend it for seeing what an director can do wrong, but what he can do right, All the same, if you saw the movie and didn't like it, I understand entirely why, but if you liked it, I could understand why all the same.
For Everybody else, Red State follows three kids, all generic no-names, who find a website that allows them to find women who are more than willing to fool around. As such, they set out to meet with said stranger, finding out the next day that the person that has drugged and is holding them captive is actually Abin Cooper's Five Points Church, a cult based off of Fred Phelps and the Westboro Baptist Church from Kansas.
The movie has an intro, a middle and an end, and it's sad to say that both the middle and intro lack so much character and definition from Smith's previous movies that if you didn't recognize it was a Kevin Smith film from the beginning, you'd assume it was some random pulp exploitation picture made by a bunch of no names starring Melissa Leo, Michael Parks and John Goodman and a bunch of kids in movies you've probably never seen.
The movie had so much riding on it, from the moment Kevin announced it, I was on board. I've been a Kevin Smith fan for some time, perhaps not as long as most fans, but I still enjoy his work. However, when he made this movie, it didn't feel as strong as a Kevin Smith film or even a horror film, for that matter.
The villianry of Abin Cooper's flock comes off as silly in some parts, and it's sad that it had to be done in such a cut-paste style of other cult pictures. An Example has a man being executed and one of the members starts chanting, "Send the Sinners straight to hell", and while not a poor delivery, it's so cliché that it took me out of the picture. Not to mention, nearly the entire flock sport accents that sound native to the deep south and again, hearing phrases like, "I'll take care of it, Daddy", seem comical, which is wrong, because it shouldn't be so funny, but it breaks the flow because the accent and the nonchalant delivery makes it seem so average.
None of the characters have backgrounds, being more caricatures than people. The saving graces (A term I use lightly) of the picture are the actors, who do a fine enough job with what is written in front of them. Michael Parks in some scenes tries to act with dialog that's rather wooden, where I get the feeling if he were allowed to ham the performance up, it might have made the character seem more villainous. He does have some moments, such as when he's surrounded by death all around him, Parks makes Abin seem so detached that all he does is remark how the Bible says they did good. Not to mention, a real tense scene with Abin talking to a cop over a radio was the type of evil that really needed to be within the whole picture.
Melissa Leo does as good as she can, most of her scenes have her doing the kind of overacting that made Raul Julia's performance in 1994's "Street Fighter" fantastic.
The film sadly squanders the other actors, John Goodman, Kevin Pollak and Stephen Root do what they can, and of the time they are on screen, they don't do too much.
The problems with the film are simple: if you have a villain that's toted as "so bad, Nazis don't even want to have their politics associated with them", It would help if we got some kind of indicator, instead of lots of talking.
However, the ending is probably going to be the polarizer of the year. I actually like the ending, because of the way Smith ends the picture, it's an ending that people should follow whenever we see the WBC protesting for one reason of another. Short of that, the first two halves of the film don't make the picture seem anything more than generic, the horror isn't horrifying enough and the action is nearly non-existent.
I will say as a Kevin Smith fan, however, don't watch the film expecting "Clerks" or anything living within the View-Askew universe. I recommend it for seeing what an director can do wrong, but what he can do right, All the same, if you saw the movie and didn't like it, I understand entirely why, but if you liked it, I could understand why all the same.