Thanks for the memories!

How sad is this?

Highly Overrated But Still Good

It's not great by any means, but it's a pretty good movie that didn't leave me filled with regret for investing time in it.

I want to start by saying I normally really like Kevin Smith movies. With this one he makes a few logical leaps that I simply don't think is realistic. I'll talk about those in a minute.The good - the action is pretty good. The church folks behave like good little crazy zealots, making the audience clearly see them as villains. I thought that the acting was well done in the film as well.The problem is the ATF agents are also villains. There are really no good character in this movie aside from the poor kids that are held captive. John Goodman's character casually orders his subordinates to execute everyone. Everyone... the church folk AND the people they are holding prisoner... really? And why is this? Basically because he can since the news has not caught wind of any of the events transpiring. That in and of itself doesn't make a lot of sense, but then on top of that none of his subordinates question his orders. You're telling me that your run of the mill ATF agent is ok with gunning down innocent people? I don't think so. Don't get me wrong there are bad people out there in the world and some of them are in positions of power like this, but up to this point none of the characters behaved like a bunch of cold blooded murderers. It's a logical leap that I just cannot follow. It can be assumed that the characters have families/children. There is no way all over even most of them would be alright with murder. At the very least one of them would have thought about this being done to their family and turned on Goodman.I love you Kevin Smith, but you should stick with comedies.

Kevin Smith's first non-comedy film is a loose actiony horror parable about an extreme right wing Baptist Christian cult, who kidnap and sacrifice "sinners" as part of their services and three young idiots who are tricked into their clutches. A minor traffic accident on their way to the rendezvous inadvertently escalates until eventually it brings an ATF squad to the pastor's compound, but will they be in time to save the trio.Central to "Red State"s appeal is a towering performance from the late Michael Parks, as Pastor Cooper, the devout head of the family church. He's charismatic and magnetic, despite the warped beliefs he holds and has engendered in his flock. His performance adds a credibility to the idea that his congregation would murder at his behest. The rest of the cast is full of recognisable faces, Anna Gunn and Matt Jones from "Breaking Bad" have small roles. Michael Park's son James appears, as does Stephen Root, Kevin Alejandro, Kevin Pollock and Patrick Fischler. If there is a weakness to the cast, it's probably in the three boys who make the poor choice to meet an older woman at a quiet trailer park. Kyle Gallner, as Jarrod, makes the most of his role as the defacto leader of this group, but the other two boys are perhaps a little underwritten and making us care more for them might have made their scenes of peril resonate more. Smith's scriptwriting, despite veering away from comedy, remains his greatest strength. Dialogue remains sparky, and relationships (such as between John Goodman's ATF agent and his wife, his unnamed boss on the other end of the phone and his increasingly distressed on site team) feel realistic. Where it fails is the other great criticism that dogs Smith, the action scenes that make up the final third of the film are pedestrian and repetitive and drag on until we reach a truly surprising conclusion. I can't decide even now if I'd have preferred the hinted at ending to have been the truth, or the one we get, but it's a memorable ending.It was brave of Kevin Smith to make a move so far outside his wheelhouse and he deserves credit for it, even if the result is a bit flawed.

An interesting film and a nice change of pace from Kevin Smith. While there are definitely some genuine comic moments, they are few and far between. Instead there is a mix of genres that somehow seems to work. The film is at first a horror/thriller and totally drew me in. It is dark, frantic and tense. It soon moulds into a siege film, a bit of decent gun play with a little escape excitement thrown in. The film does get a little confused in its delivery but not in its message. In this world, there are ridiculous reasons which people use to condone evil actions (particularly within religion), and the extent to which they follow these beliefs into actions of violence and terrorism continues to astound me. Kevin Smith does well to endue hatred for the Cooper 'family' early on in the film and Michael Parks, as the head of this group of nutters, is charismatic and passionate, even if it is absolute nonsense that he is preaching. There are loads of recognisable faces in this, taken from pools of talent from both film and TV (Breaking Bad, True Blood). John Goodman is probably the most known of these and does a believable turn as the federal agent charged with taking the Coopers down. It's important to note that the government are not the good guys here either. They have their share of dark decisions and idiotic actions. I did enjoy this film....but this level of fanaticism in the name of God is guaranteed to make me angry and so I inevitably found this fairly uncomfortable watching.

*Warning: Minor Spoiler Ahead"I gave this film an 8 although I do feel it deserved a 7.5 but I decided to round up. I had been a bit reluctant to watch this film initially because it seemed like it would be hugely predictable and overall rather boring but after watching several somewhat random films, I found myself watching it and I have to say that I was pleasantly surprised. I feel like with Red State, you have to begin watching it in a certain frame of mind, knowing that the plot will be rather straightforward but also frighteningly possible. Despite referencing the Westboro Baptist Church as being "less-violent", it doesn't take Sherlock Holmes to notice the similarities between their family and the one featured in Red State. You begin to wonder how far a brainwashed group such as this would go in the name of religion. The ending (which I'll try not to go into too much detail about) was bittersweet: while it ends in a rather comical fashion, I couldn't help but wish that there had been a huge twist at the end i.e. God was actually reaching down and beginning the crazy stuff from the book of revelations (I'm not religious at all so my longing to see a film end like this is entirely based on entertainment value). That being said, if you're in the mood for a rather crazy and violent film about a groups of religious nutjobs and some sex-craved teenagers then this is the film for you.