Red State

Red State (2011)
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0873886/

Kevin Smith, of Clerks and Mallrats fame's latest offering comes in the form of Red State, a thriller about a group of teenagers who go out to the country in hopes of doing "the devil's deed" with a woman (Melissa Leo) they met on a...ahem...dating website.  However, when they show up, they get much more than they bargained for.  A local cult, run by zealot Abin Cooper (Michael Parks), has staged an execution to demonstrate the charge God has given them: to eradicate the abominations we know as homosexuals.  When the local authorities (Stephen Root) get wind of what's going on, they call in the ATF, led by Agent Joseph Keenan (John Goodman), charged with resolving the conflict at hand.





Something weird is happening with Kevin Smith. It's like he got tired of making "Kevin Smith movies" and started taking bets on what kind of movie he could do next. Which is cool, at least he's trying to branch out a bit, but this offering is...disjointed, at best. The movie has no real protagonist. We start out thinking it's going to be the group of kids, then we quickly learn that theory's not going to pan out, then enters the always hilarious Stephen Root, but we know that's not going to happen, then enters Goodman halfway through the movie, and he sort of takes over...it seems there were too many plot elements and not enough development, and it sort of just turned into a shoot 'em up movie. It's obvious Smith is an amateur at action movies as well, using old camera tricks and cutaways to avoid overuse of stunts and effects, but is still blowing things up that rightly should never explode...like the trunk of a car hit by a truck (Kevin...Bay?). He also doesn't seem to know how or when to kill people off, so they just sort of die in random locations. But he still adds that Kevin Smith charm, blending absurd dialogue with off the wall humor. I'm not sure it works so well in this setting, but at least it added a little flair to an otherwise dry thriller. Smith's last movie, Cop Out, stunk so bad I wanted to put my remote control through the TV just so I wouldn't have to see any more (but I just used it to turn the TV off instead).  I think he should stick to low budget, non-action comedies (though I hear he's quitting directing...time will tell).

John Goodman is pretty much phoning it in these days.  I think once actors reach a certain age, or maybe just a certain number of movies completed, they're just going through the motions (Robert De Niro, for example).  I don't know if he's making bad investments, or if he really just loves acting, but there wasn't anything in this performance to make me believe he wanted to be there. The three kids from the beginning are barely worth mentioning, since they are basically just used to introduce us to the cult, then exit, stage left.  Melissa Leo plays a crazy white trash lady, again, and Kevin Pollack has a good cameo.  However, the real show-stealer here, and I have to use that term lightly for this movie, was Michael Parks. He was brilliant as the voracious, insidious, and downright creepy cultist, Abin Cooper. This is now how I imagine David Koresh was like.  Parks has had a long and not-so-illustrious career of direct to DVD movies, but this movie performance makes me wonder why he hasn't gotten more recognition. I'll look for other projects of his to see if maybe this is a fluke.

Red State is a clumsy movie.  Poor writing, out of place jokes and dialogue (did you really want the last line of your movie to be "shut the f*ck up"?), and spotty action don't make for an award-winning thriller.  However, the charismatic performance of Michael Parks and the general nuttiness of watching a cult battle the ATF could make for a fun watch, even if it's just to poke fun at what's transpiring. If you have some free time, check it out.

Score: 6/10
Recommended: If you have time to kill