Escape to the Movies: Red State

[Kmadden2004]

I saw this at the Empire Big Screen @ the O2 last month and I really enjoyed it, mostly because it kept throwing the u-turns at us. Certainly the audience I was with seemed to be enjoying it.

And Michael Parks and John Goodman's performances are worth the ticket price alone.

Certainly, putting it on par with The Room is going a little far as a critical assessment.

 

[MB202]

Like The Room? You've got me interested...

 

[Agent Larkin]

Ok I'm not gonna lie. When I saw the poster in my local cinema I thought "Huh, interesting sounding title and a girl holding an AK, Some sort of Red Dawn knock-off/sequel?"

But now all I can say is thank you Bob, holy crap you've just saved me from going to see it.

 

[Littaly]

Huh, weird. I had heard a lot of good things about Red State from other critics who are also of the opinion that all he's done lately is basically a bunch of sh*t. I guess I'm just gonna have to see it for myself when it becomes available over here in any shape or form.

Also, it still confuses me that America uses red as the color for its right wing party when everywhere else it's associated with left wing politics.

 

[Mangue Surfer]

Is some geek reference in the movie? Star Wars perhaps? Because what continues to allow this guy to make films is the idea that he is the nerd leader. Seriously, everything goes very badly then he appears and makes some jokes about Tim Burtom. As the nerd world hates Tim Burtom for reasons I'm unknown, all is forgiven and all (the nerds) back to trust that Kevin Smith is back and his next movie will be great, yada, yada, yada!

 

[Frostbite3789]

May I ask, why is there so many films where there are American Pseudo-Christian Lunatics running around with guns killing whatever they deem as unholy? It's almost like Bad Guys with English Accents? Or a Hitman with a Russian Accent? Is this a trend?

It's just an easy target. Everyone can get together and go "OH MAN THOSE SOUTHERN FUNDIES ARE SO LIKE THAT!"

What's sad is I'm pretty sure more than enough Northerners (read as more than one) see people from the South as being like that. Seeing as how Having had people seriously ask if I rode a horse to school when I was a kid, there isn't a doubt in my mind.

 

[Aiddon_v1legacy]

So it seems Smith is now channeling M. Knight Shayamalan.

Why is it always the promising ones that have to go crazy and piss their careers down the drain?

it's probably that whole "thin line between genius and madness" idea. Seriously, people like Smith and Shamalamadingdong have a bad habit of being talented but also lacking outside perspective at times. M. Night in particular showed that he REALLY couldn't take criticism well and resorted to making a critic character in Lady in the Water that was a punching bag for people who dared question him. Though the result was that Ebert had the last laugh by saying the critic "got off easy" since he wasn't in the rest of the movie.

 

[SimGrave]

So far the only kevin smith movie I didn't enjoy was Cop Out, which was a cheap Leathal Weapon rip-off. It wasn't funny at all and the plot was boring. I didn't get that movie at all.

Zack & Miri and Jersey Girl weren't that bad. Z&M was funny and even touching at the end (yes it was toilet humor and cheezy love story). JG was not a movie that felt like a Kevin Smith movie, but it really talked to me. I could really relate to the story and felt it was well delievered.

I have doubts about Red State. As much as I'm intrigued by the fact that Smith moved away from what he usually does, I'm thinking other director does similar and better stuff than that. Plus in one of the special features in the Dogma DVD, Smith admits he can't shoot action and that in Dogma he tried as much as possible to avoid action scenes. So Bob's comments doesn't really surpise me­.

To me, this would be is second bad movie. Which isn't too bad and hopeless. Which CAN'T be said about Shyamalan, where I lost all hope of seeing him make a good movie again... and Tim Burton has been on a fragile rope for the last decade, he doesn't have a good record.

 

[GunboatDiplomat]

Bad review for a change, I had to stop watching this half way through becuase I really want to see the movie and felt it was spilling over into spoiler territory with no warnings. whcih is just bad form.

However the point about kidnapping 3 college kids not making sense becuase they're not gay.... doesn't make any sense. They wanted to have sex. Outside of marriage! In many religions theres a bunch of wackos who think that sort of behaviour means you deserve to be stoned to death.

 

[sunami88]

I respectfully (yet vehemently) disagree with you on this one, Bob.[footnote]This all comes from someone who has listened to every single SModcast/Hollywood Babble-On, and has seen every Kevin Smith-related movie in one form or another... Even Cop Out.[/footnote]

I enjoyed the hell out of this movie, no pun intended. This could very well be due to the fact I paid my ~$70 and saw the movie in Montreal last month with Sir Smith about 10 rows up from me. I won't sit here and try to explain away the problems you had with the movie as if you didn't "get it" the first time, but I would strongly encourage people who want to see something very off the beaten path to give it a try anyways.

The switch over to an action movie can be jarring, but by the time it happened I was enjoying myself too much to really care that it changed from a fairly standard claustrophobic horror movie to a very well played action movie. I even enjoyed when it cut to John Goodman to comically "hand wave", after leaving you for a minute to wonder if the movie was about to take a dramatic shift.

Again; I simply (and respectfully), disagree.

 

[MBE]

Holy cow! Moviebob surprised the heck out of me. I was 100% sure that Moviebob was going to LOOOOOVE Saint Kevin Smith's "Red State". It has everything a Leftist propaganda film needs.... The villains are non-Democrat Christian heterosexual psychotic murderers who have to be "pacified" by Dear Leader's stormtroopers.

I know Moviebob's opinions are the opposite of most people -- see his glowing reviews of box office bombs "Sucker Punch" and "Thor" for examples -- but who would have thought that Moviebob would have an opinion that would agree with normal people!

Of course, this means that "Red State" will get glowing reviews from the MSM and that "Red State" will win the Academy Award for Best Picture next year.

Considering the "Saw" and "Hostel" movie sequels are getting into double digits, I'm sure we'll have more "Red State" movies as we get closer to Election Day.

 

[daxterx2005]

Red State

What the hell is going on?

Watch Video

I. Don't. Know.

Seriously, I'm as confused about Smith as everyone else is. I loved his films, but then he does stuff like Jersey Girl and Cop Out and has some bizarre public scandals.

Cop out wasn't one of his films, he only directed it.

 

[MBE]

Reading the opposing views by self-admitted Kevin Smith fanboys makes me shake my head in embarrassment for them.

I thought Moviebob's review was pretty level. He admits he's a fanboy but the fact that he can be objective and calls excrement excrement means he hasn't drunk the Kool-Aid like the rabid Kevin Smith fanboys.

 

[Formica Archonis]

Thanks, that was one of the most amusing thing I've seen in a while. Those faces were pretty terrifying...

No problem. I enjoy reading about bootlegs and other cheap (and/or weird, like the distressing Punisher-transformer/contortionist-penislike-gun-barrel action figure) toys like that, so I recognized it right off. Some people call it "Voltromas" if you want more info online.

There seems to be TWO versions of this Thomas toy, though, one one the creepy face and one with the face more like the show.

 

[The Grim Ace]

He used to be so great of a director, oh well.

Also, for LA Escapists looking for the Thomas the Tank-engine transformers, I've seen them on Olvera St. and in China Town before, just a heads up.

 

[Darth Sea Bass]

No Clerks 2 was a godawful movie! Still not sure if it's worse than cop out though.

 

[MovieBob]

I know Moviebob's opinions are the opposite of most people -- see his glowing reviews of box office bombs "Sucker Punch" and "Thor" for examples -- but who would have thought that Moviebob would have an opinion that would agree with normal people!

Uh... dude? "Thor" did like $400 Million + worldwide so - it was a huge, huge hit: http://boxofficemojo.com/movies/?id=thor.htm

 

[daxterx2005]

No Clerks 2 was a godawful movie! Still not sure if it's worse than cop out though.

Cop out wasn't one of Kevin Smith's films,he just directed it.

 

[ProjectTrinity]

As someone who sees "so bad it's good" as wasting money better spent watching it burn, I won't be watching this movie. And on that note, what does one do to get his or her movies out there? Because clearly anyone can join now!

(I also won't be seeing the movie since it doesn't fall in line with my tastes anyways)