Red State

RED STATE is one of the worst films I can remember seeing. It's inept, perpetuates its own unimportance, its lazy, and its ugly. Directed by Kevin Smith, RED STATE being his last film ever, which is a good thing considering his recent films (See: COP OUT), I see a lazy filmmaking here. Smith has always been one to continue a swath of laziness, CLERKS celebrates this, but its sort of immature in the way that the characters never change. At least CLERKS, though, realizes this immaturity, but then years later, Smith makes CLERKS II, which merely belittles the characters and the original film in intent alone. Smith believes in filmmaking as he sees it, and his trainwreck, COP OUT, which catapulted him out of the mainstream, led him to this schlocky piece of garbage: RED STATE. RED STATE is about a cult, led by a disgusting minster who captures three unsuspecting high school boys. He believes the boys to be homosexuals, even though he lured them in by using one of his female followers (Melissa Leo) to sexually persuade them into her trailer. At work here are Smith's notions about cults, which are underdeveloped and surface-y. He has no concept of real cults, and thus creates a quasi-cult, a creation of his own mind. There are a lot of good actors in RED STATE, probably lured in on Smith's insistence of RED STATE as his final film. Good, RED STATE because like torture-porn in the way it disposes of the poor teenagers in the same fashion of a FRIDAY THE 13th film. The images at hand are ugly and poorly comprised, and there are so many plot holes and immature notions here, I could choke the filmmakers with them. Especially offensive is Smith's take on the high schoolers. He makes them say dumbshit things and toys with them. RED STATE is just awful. The action is second-rate, the acting is submerged in the bad decisions of the director, and the intents are just befuddling and dumb. Smith has become a bad director, and this is a bad film. I will not miss his work, for he has fallen into the trap he warned of in CLERKS: he has stayed immature, he has not grown up.
Red State: 1/2 of a star