Red State

[baumer]

Discuss

[baumer]

Red State is a Kevin Smith film and it might be his best one since Dogma. This is not your typical dick and fart joke Smith. This is a serious take on religious fanaticism in America and when you toss in the right to bear arms, all fucking hell breaks loose. Melissa Leo, who won the oscar for The Fighter, John Goodman and Michael Parks all stand out in their roles here. Parks especially as the David Koresh type leader of a Waco like church cult that takes the word of God a little too literally, to the point where they feel they are within their rights to kill gays and other dirty fornicators. How they go about doing this in church is a terrifying scene, one that I won't forget.Equally as impressive is Goodman, who has never been better. I think because Smith decided to distribute this on his own, he pissed off some of the fraternity in Hollywood because this is one of the best films of 2011 and it absolutely has some of the best performances of 2011. The Artist is a joke compared to this, but I digress. 9/10

[SchumacherFTW]

I took an hour and a half train ride on my own last september so I could see this on openijg day. It blew me away. Michael Parks was incredible, his monologue in the church had me transfixed to his every single hateful word. The last half hour or so is nuts and pretty much every preconception I had of this movie was wrong.Loved itA

[baumer]

I was mesmerized by his speech as well. There's no way he memorized that, he had to just just an outline of what he needed to discuss and then Smith turned him loose. There were very few cuts during that speech so he just kep going and going. Thsi film truly surprised me.

[Webslinger]

I thought it was a very chilling and effective satire until the shooting began. While Kevin Smith has to be given credit for not making things predictable (killing the last of the three boys who open the film roughly halfway through is an interesting choice, to say the least), I didn't really care how things turned out for any of the characters and I thought all the points he seems to think are profound are actually pretty obvious (fanaticism is bad, nutjobs are illogical and inhumane, extreme beliefs lead people to do stupid things, etc). As a fan of his work, I was excited to see him stretch his range as a filmmaker, but ultimately came away from this one disappointed that the whole thing didn't live up to the promise of its first half-hour.

B-

And that Michael Parks monologue... damn that was creepy.

[RobinHood26]

Just finished watching this 5 minutes ago... HOLY FUCK. Kevin Smith Directed this? Color me surprised, this is a brilliant movie. Talk about being captivated. 

 

A- (92)

[The Stingray]

Yeah, it actually feels like a directed movie as opposed to his other movies where there's just a camera in the corner and they talk shit for an hour and a half. That being said, I don't think he's very good at directing the action stuff. But still a solid movie from Smith. B, for me.

 

PS: I love the "God" horns towards the end.

[Jack Nevada]

The first 30 minutes are solid as hell but then it's just *fart noise*