Popular reviews

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  Review by Silent J ★★★ 2

  In the first half, this was a movie about Jesus.

  In the second, Jesus just shit himself.

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  Review by Evan ★★½ 3

  Film #8 of Hoop-Tober.

  I'm really not sure what to think of Kevin Smith's film Red State. I sort of hated it and I sort of liked it at the same time. I'll just settle for 2.5 stars. It was okay, I guess?

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  Review by Simon Ramshaw ★★★★ 5

  "You said this was going to be a simple in-and-out, sir. Simple just shit itself." - Joe Keenan

  There's something about this film that hopelessly endearing. It's like a baby being birthed into the world; confused, lost, messy and gory from all of the afterbirth that's come after it, but ever so lovable. You think that's a weird analogy? Red State is a weird film.

  Beginning as an immature and unfunny teen comedy, turning into a religious torture-porn movie, then twisting itself into a siege movie and ending a religious satire that leaves a massive grin plastered across your face at the end of a relatively short 80 minutes, it's probably one of the most schizophrenic movies of all time.…

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  Review by Will Sloan ★ 1

  Kevin Smith's first horror movie — a labour of love that was much anticipated on certain corners of the internet a decade ago. Nobody watches or talks about it anymore because, frankly, it is bad and not interesting. Nothing good here. Justin and I revisited it because we dared each other. Don't make our mistake.

  The plot — in which a murderous Westboro Baptist Church-like cult gets caught in a siege against the FBI — frequently makes no sense. Smith, a notoriously poor visual stylist, attempts to up his game by introducing shaky-cam and random jump-cuts, to no avail. Smith clearly wants to Say Something™, but has a Neil Breen-level grasp of politics, so the best he can come up…

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  Review by 𝚣𝚎𝚞𝚜 ★★★½

  This was quite the fucking ride! I had no idea what to expect and the first half sets some shit that made me think it was going in a particular direction but my expectations were subverted. I wouldn’t go as far as considering this a horror movie but I guess anything that deals with religious extremists should be classified as such. That ending really threw me for a loop though!!

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  Review by Justin Decloux ★

  I remember eagerly looking forward to RED STATE, excited that a filmmaker I enjoyed was trying something radically different and doing it fast, cheap, and passionately.

  When I finally saw it in 2011, I didn't like it, but I appreciated the effort.

  Now, my present-day self would like to re-evaluate my previously held opinion of this motion picture for the public record:

  It fucking sucks.

  RED STATE is an obnoxiously ugly film that revels in dull horror cliches: Ugly colourless photography, pointless handheld camerawork, and shock deaths that serve no purpose because everyone on-screen is a flavourless monster. The film devolves into a one-long gunfight that could easily be made up of stock footage from a Steven Seagal film shot…

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  Review by Void Girl

  A very okay horror thriller which doesn't look like it was made by Kevin Smith but sure as hell sounds like it was written by him. The stories he tells on his Burn In Hell show about the making of this are much more interesting than the actual film but hey, it's alright. Passable. It wasn't as bad as I remembered it being. Some of the editing is the worst I've seen in any of his films so far, even Clerks and that was edited in a video store. Michael Parks is a strange enigma. I can't tell if his performance deserves an Oscar or if it's unintentionally hilarious. I enjoy it nonetheless. I really like Melissa Leo and Stephen…

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  Review by Michelle Parsons ★★★½ 7

  So I’ve had this Blu-ray sitting in my watch pile for at least five years and have never seen it (it was a Christmas gift). I remember it getting a lot of flak back in the day when it came out so I never got around to watching it until tonight. I purposely went into it completely blind, never even reading the back of the Blu-ray cover because I didn’t want any spoilers. And I actually liked it quite a bit!! I absolutely love Michael Parks, and the rest of the cast is pretty impressive too. Michael Parks’ dancing was the definite highlight for me, but I do wish they would have kept the original ending.

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  Review by Héctor

  The movie is a bit fucked up but i really enjoyed it. If you're an atheist or just hate religious people you would like it.

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  Review by Steve G 🇵🇸 🇾🇪 ★

  Stevil Intentions – The 2010s Horror Month

  Well this isn't a horror film at all, is it? In fact, it's barely a film.

  It's fucking crap, I'll say that. But because it's not a horror I guess I can't get too mad that it's another slab of turd that I've lumbered myself with during this largely disastrous project, where every decent film I've watched has been greeted by me like I've just been given the all-clear from recovering from a terminal disease.

  I'm NOT a Kevin Smith hater. I liked Clerks, Mallrats, Dogma and Clerks 2, so let's just brush that under the carpet right away. Plus I don't follow him on social media and I don't really know what…

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  Review by Marianna Neal ★★ 10

  Kevin Smith and I... we just don't get along when it comes to horror. Though I don't even know if this counts as horror. It's more of a teen shenanigans comedy that turns into a really violent action shaky cam film, but then the ending is like "you know what? Screw the rest of this, we'll just troll you here" because the movie wants to pretend it's being clever. It's not.

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  Review by Sam G ★★★½

  This was the only Kevin Smith film I had left to watch and looking at the premise, I just expected something crazy. So delivering on the insanity, he actually crafted a pretty fun politically charged thriller that goes way off the rails, while at the same time not so far fetched and works because of that. Expanding his range with genres, this does have a little of everything. Showcasing some solid editing and really just Smith proving he can still get serious. Has some issues but damn is it entertaining. John Goodman and Michael Parks are so good too! 6.5/10✝️

  Kevin Smith ranked: boxd.it/aZigE