Red State - Depressingly charmless (sorry Kevin)  

From the cheeky chappie who brought us such happy-go-lucky feel-good movies such as Clerks, Mallrats and Chasing Amy, Kevin Smith now brings us Red State - a horror about three geeky teenage boys who get abducted by a bible-bashing cult in middle America.

First of all it becomes clear that there's not going to be any humour in this one (and don't expect to see Jay and Silent Bob turning up to crack a couple of witticisms), but that's okay - I've seen my fair share of what I believe they call `torture p*rn' and I there is a market for it. That's how the first third of the movie sets itself up as - three guys about to be killed (ala Hostel) by a cult. I found that a fair premise and was happy to watch on. Then it all sort of fell apart and went all over the place.

The story doesn't seem to know who it wants to stay with - the hostages, their captors, or the incompetent police force sent to `rescue' them. John Goodman is decent enough as the leader of the police (or ATF to be precise), but he sort of takes over the last half. Also, baring in mind that Kevin Smith directed it, the direction is naturally good.

Red State will find a market - there are enough people to like this sort of film. It just didn't do anything for me. I've seen better and at least I managed to care something about the cast (as I found most of this lot pretty unlikeable). Plus there was a scene with the preacher in the first half that just went on too long - he was preaching a sermon and I ended up fast-forwarding it. Also (personal gripe) they upset a small child for no real reason near the end (or rather the child looked pretty upset - I'll give them the benefit of the doubt if they somehow managed to get the little toddler to act that upset).

Overall: had a few good points, but not for me.

(Kevin Smith still rocks though - come back Jay and Silent Bob!)

4/10 Dumb and Dumber could understand this film