Number Rolled: 54
Movie Name/Year: Red
State (2011)
Genre: Horror
Length: 88
minutes
Rating: R
Director: Kevin
Smith
Writer: Kevin
Smith
Actors: Michael
Angarano, Deborah Aquila, Nicholas Braun, Ronnie Connell, Kaylee DeFer, Joey
Figueroa, Kyle Gallner, Anna Gunn, Matt Jones, John Lacy, Cathering McCord,
Alexa Nikolas, Stephen Root, Cooper Thornton, Betty Aberlin, Kerry Bishe, Ralph
Garman, Melissa Leo, Molly Livingston, James Parks, Michael Parks, Haley Ramm,
Jennifer Schwalbach Smith, Elizabeth Tripp, Ash Barnett, Taylor Briggs, John
Goodman
I
was lucky enough to get to Radio City Music Hall for the first showing of Kevin
Smith’s tour for Red State, and it was well worth the extra cash.
As many of you may know, at a film festival, Kevin Smith made the controversial move of auctioning off - to himself - his own movie. Not only that, but in a twenty minute long speech (found on youtube), basically told the majority of Hollywood that they were money-grubbing whores and that there was a better way. In that same breath he honored his fans, those middle-class people working 9 to 5 in order to get the ten dollars necessary to see a movie in the theaters. Many times this man has made sure his fans know that it's us who matter to him, not the rich guys sitting in the back of an empty theater with a glass of wine and expectations to see the same thing over and over again. That being said, I am sorry to see such an amazing director retire (after his next movie), but thrilled that he intends to take his success and help produce the works of others for free (as per his speech).
For his second to last directed/written film ever, Kevin Smith stepped outside his raunchy (and hilarious) comedy style to enter into a world of horror. I was terrified that it was going to be too great a leap for him to be able to land gracefully on the other side. That fear was laid to rest after the first half hour of the movie. He managed the leap flawlessly. "How?" you might ask. The answer is simple: because he didn't attempt it. Kevin Smith took the raw terror of an extreme belief and tied it in with the raunchy, somewhat inappropriate, comedy he is known for… and it worked.
I spent half the movie staring at the screen frozen in fear with my mouth hanging open and the other half snorting through my laughter.
To me a family like the Phelps definitely instills a terror that I have trouble overcoming. I'm pro-choice, pro-gay marriage and pro-not picketing peoples funerals. These extremist jack-asses feel like a headline waiting to happen. Kevin Smith took the fear that people like I have and showed us that next step. In the question and answer session after the movie he worded it as having shown, "what the Phelps would do if there were no more funerals to picket."
With stars like John Goodman, Melissa Leo and Michael Angarano, you know the acting itself was insane. The photography had a touch of "Clerks" but almost like a grown-up version of it. The script itself was out of this world.
A tough topic was wrestled in this movie and it was handled, in my belief, correctly. In a movie that uses the line "Fear God" as its advert it's almost amusing that Kevin Smith comes off as a god amongst men.
As many of you may know, at a film festival, Kevin Smith made the controversial move of auctioning off - to himself - his own movie. Not only that, but in a twenty minute long speech (found on youtube), basically told the majority of Hollywood that they were money-grubbing whores and that there was a better way. In that same breath he honored his fans, those middle-class people working 9 to 5 in order to get the ten dollars necessary to see a movie in the theaters. Many times this man has made sure his fans know that it's us who matter to him, not the rich guys sitting in the back of an empty theater with a glass of wine and expectations to see the same thing over and over again. That being said, I am sorry to see such an amazing director retire (after his next movie), but thrilled that he intends to take his success and help produce the works of others for free (as per his speech).
For his second to last directed/written film ever, Kevin Smith stepped outside his raunchy (and hilarious) comedy style to enter into a world of horror. I was terrified that it was going to be too great a leap for him to be able to land gracefully on the other side. That fear was laid to rest after the first half hour of the movie. He managed the leap flawlessly. "How?" you might ask. The answer is simple: because he didn't attempt it. Kevin Smith took the raw terror of an extreme belief and tied it in with the raunchy, somewhat inappropriate, comedy he is known for… and it worked.
I spent half the movie staring at the screen frozen in fear with my mouth hanging open and the other half snorting through my laughter.
To me a family like the Phelps definitely instills a terror that I have trouble overcoming. I'm pro-choice, pro-gay marriage and pro-not picketing peoples funerals. These extremist jack-asses feel like a headline waiting to happen. Kevin Smith took the fear that people like I have and showed us that next step. In the question and answer session after the movie he worded it as having shown, "what the Phelps would do if there were no more funerals to picket."
With stars like John Goodman, Melissa Leo and Michael Angarano, you know the acting itself was insane. The photography had a touch of "Clerks" but almost like a grown-up version of it. The script itself was out of this world.
A tough topic was wrestled in this movie and it was handled, in my belief, correctly. In a movie that uses the line "Fear God" as its advert it's almost amusing that Kevin Smith comes off as a god amongst men.
Overall Opinion – 5/5
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