Red State
An Unlikely Film from Kevin Smith
Three horny high-school boys come across an online ad from an older woman looking for sex. Boys being boys, they hit the road to satisfy their erotic curiosity. But what begins as a fantasy takes a dark turn as they come face-to-face with a terrifying "holy" force with a fatal agenda.
Member Reviews
An un-even effort from Kevin Smith. - estefan
Kevin Smith's first attempt at a purely dramatic feature starts really poorly. I mean, just absolutely terrible. The acting is bad, with the teenagers being absolutely annoying and the screenplay feels like it was written by an amateur just starting out. However, at around the thirty-minute mark, Smith wakes up and actually starts directing and the film improves drastically. He manages to deliver scenes of heart-pounding uncertainty and he keeps that through the rest of the film. When John Goodman appears on-screen in a great performance, the writing also improves and the dialogue has that feel expected from Smith. Things really get interesting when the ruckus starts and bullets start firing. The story goes in plenty of unexpected directions which I greatly appreciated. That said, there are still problems that occurred in parts. DP David Klein throws in some shaky-cam shots, which I find one of the most annoying traits in modern cinematography. And though Kerry Bishe delivers a decent performance, her character is rather undeveloped and her decisions aren't explored enough. There are also moments of Stupid Character Syndrome. Nonetheless, while it is a mixed bag, it manages to overcome the poor first act to create something somewhat worthwhile.Some good parts some bad parts. - KeithTalent
I actually happened to catch this while Kevin Smith was on tour with it and as an overall experience, I would probably give this about 4 or 4.5 stars or so since I still find Smith to be a very charismatic, interesting individual and he is quite good at telling a story. I really liked all of the spoken word part (he introduced the film for about 10 minutes, then did a 2.5 hour Q&A afterwards) aside from the fans asking questions, who were just awkward and obnoxious.
As for the film itself, it's being billed as a horror film, but I'd really call it more of a darkly comedic action thriller. I was very nervous at the beginning of the film because the opening scene is painfully bad, but once things got moving along I started to get into it; once John Goodman showed up, I was sold as he was pretty awesome and um, crap really hits the fan shortly thereafter. Most of the other performances were decent and while it has some shortcomings in the build-up (also, the camera work was a little off-putting at times), I have to say I liked it overall. It certainly does not feel like a Kevin Smith film which can be good or bad depending on how you feel about the guy.Underwhelming - eoguy
I was looking forward to this one cautiously because, while I like Kevin Smith movies, I realize he doesn't exactly make "thinking" movies.
But with Red State he certainly tries...sort of. It wants to be a smart commentary rife with suspense, but winds up being a relatively violent film that only really gets to its commentary in the last few moments before sputtering out. This is more for the curious moviegoer than one looking for a great film.
Member Reviews
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An un-even effort from Kevin Smith. - estefan
Kevin Smith's first attempt at a purely dramatic feature starts really poorly. I mean, just absolutely terrible. The acting is bad, with the teenagers being absolutely annoying and the screenplay feels like it was written by an amateur just starting out. However, ...Some good parts some bad parts. - KeithTalent
I actually happened to catch this while Kevin Smith was on tour with it and as an overall experience, I would probably give this about 4 or 4.5 stars or so since I still find Smith to be a very charismatic, interesting individual and he is quite good at telling ...Underwhelming - eoguy
I was looking forward to this one cautiously because, while I like Kevin Smith movies, I realize he doesn't exactly make "thinking" movies.
But with Red State he certainly tries...sort of. It wants to be a smart commentary rife with suspense, but winds ...