Red State (2011)

I'm sorry when the remaining teenage local boy has this chance to get out and he does this little speech about his two besties being dead so he don't give a shit, it just lost me. Then when the agent killed him anyway....(I guess there's spoilers now!) Sorry, it became a fantasy then, absolutely zero sense. I had 2 or 3 stars, now it gets one.

John Goodman Michael Parks "Red State" tells the story of three teenage boys looking for a hot night, that stumble into an extremist church instead and are threatened with death and the actions this leads to.My five stars are a hard judgment. There would have been reasons to give it a six, but somehow it doesn't feel right. Learning that this was one of Terentino's favorite films of 2011, I get the feeling we don't share a taste in films.What's really good though about Red State is the casting. Exceptional acting by John Goodman and Michael Parks really create believable characters and there are several more that really put their heart in it. I guess that the topic of religious fundamentalism is as urgent as ever and surely delivers good points for a thrilling plot. Altogether, I have to state nonetheless that there was plenty of time wasted in this film. While some aspects of the story fall quite short we get to see extensive preaches and minutes of shooting instead. In my opinion a more clever use of time would have put some more depth into the story. Also in the end the film just tried to include a few to many aspects like terror laws, faith in general, hidden homosexuality and thereby misses to create one stringent viewer experience.I am most certain that some people will love this movie and I can think of quite a few reasons to justify this, all in all it just wasn't a hundred percent my cup of tea.

*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.

This movie starts off OK. Three kids in a town that has within it a Westboro Baptist Church style sect go out to have sex. They go up to a trailer and meet an older woman and the awkwardness of this scene made it great. Then it all turns to hell.As a viewer you can see the 'twist' here coming a mile away. I don't have a real problem with that. It's a way of creating suspense. What I have a problem with is that none of the decisions of anyone from this point on make any sense. I ended up yelling at the screen, because this level of stupidity is just unbelievable.Now having seen it (thankfully it's not that long) I've come to these hypotheses about what went wrong. First, the script started of being a comedy, but it isn't anymore and they didn't change the script enough to make it work. Second, they didn't raise enough money to make the police effort in this movie make anything close to reasonable. Third, they wanted good actors and they got them, but probably out of financial reasons, they are not on screen for long. Fourth, because of the rewrites no one knew what the point was anymore and the story became pointless and almost offensive in it's stupidity.In conclusion, this is an infuriatingly bad movie to see. It has no point, it makes no sense and the tone is all over the place. They could have taken the story in any number of places that would have created a satisfying story, but they didn't. It ends up being an awful movie with good actors whom I feel sorry for.Just skip it, you won't enjoy it.