Red State

Palmat

An OK effort from Smith. I was intrigued by the fact that he would make this movie but in the end I can only state that he is not a filmmaker who can muster up the suspense and grit that is necessary to make a script like this work.

J. O.

An interesting and surprisingly unique film from a (personally speaking) over-rated and under-creative director. This film had some great acting that came together to create some very unsettling moments. It is highly unlikely that Smith will ever create another film as unbridled as this - even evident by the end of the film itself, when he couldn't even give it a good finale. The final trumpet idea fell so flat.

Rafael Zen

My sadistic dream on cinema. Red State is the kind of sick movie I tell people to watch. It takes itself seriously enough to make it rewatchable, and It doesn't take itself too seriously so it's obviously fake. It's timing gone crazy.

HKFanatic

Not a bad movie...well, okay, I guess it is a bad movie. But there's something entertaining about the way Smith gleefully kills off main characters at every turn, not to mention Michael Parks as a preacher who his flock likes to call "Daddy." Michael Angarano and Kyle Gallner have good chemistry as two greasy high school kids desperate to get laid. Too bad the dialogue often sounds like a political tract.

Seth Farmer

This movie was surprising. So different for Smith! Waco, TX in a post 9/11 world--good food for thought. Perfect ending, too; "Shut the fuck up!"

Zachary T.

It may be heavy-handed, but Smith's script is tight (and even clever). Noisy shootouts, no-holds-barred performances; no surprise Quentin liked this so much.

Steve Pulaski

This is a good movie. Coming from a huge Kevin Smith fan, I was a little upset about the film not taking the "horror" route promised. It didn't know if it wanted to be horror, social commentary, or a crime-drama. It was a fine film, nicely done and nicely acted (especially by Michael Parks), but I just wanted it to be more of what it was hyped to be; a horror film.

Matthew_Lucas

Kevin Smith's grand experiment in self-distribution turns out to be an odd, awkwardly paced pseudo-horror film about an extreme, gay-hating church (clearly inspired by the Westboro Baptist Church), who begins luring in horny teenagers with the promise of sex, to kill them in their crusade against sin. Some interesting moral elements come into play later, but are mostly ignored, never really going anywhere.