Red State (2011)
Directed by Kevin Smith
Set in Middle America, a group of teens receive an online invitation for sex, though they soon encounter Christian fundamentalists with a much more sinister agenda.
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What critics compared Red State to
Taking inspiration from the works of Joel and Ethan Coen (hints of 2007's " No Country for Old Men " are unmistakable), Rob Zombie (the guns-blasting third-act skirmish resembles 2005's " The Devil's Rejects ") and Eli Roth (the very plot is but a religious-themed variation on 2006's " Hostel "), the film ultimately averts genre expectations, starting off as a raunchy teen comedy, moving into ghastly horror territory, detouring into a bullets-whizzing action pic, and concluding with a perfect satiric exclamation point.
Sadly, that doesn’t happen: Smith shies away from the tantalizing development and the story comes to a much more traditional close, obviously inspired by the end of No Country for Old Men.
Tomcats Blu-ray – The 2001 comedy comes from the era in which everyone was trying to make the next American Pie, and this one stands near the top of the heap.
While Kevin Smith’s Red State retooled the cliches of so-called “torture porn” to take pointed pot shots at rabble-rousing fundamentalists, so Green Room uses its extremist tropes (supremacist symbols, Confederate flags and “white pride worldwide” stickers) to unpick the more insidious mainstream rhetoric of the American right.
The studio reportedly pushed back on several touchy scenes, including one that plays like a surreal dream sequence from another movie (like Kevin Smith’s “Red State,” perhaps), as hatemongering members of a Westboro-style congregation flip out and spontaneously start attacking one another, but Vaughn fought to maintain the film’s edge.
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Where 2011 saw many a religious movie from the atheist perspective ( Higher Ground , Red State ), this year the ball is on the more devout side ( Noah , Son of God ).