Red State; A Hardcore Review

I know I said I would be back on a more regular basis with these reviews, but, honestly, I've been slacking. Last night, I watched Kevin Smith's Red State. I had to say, going in, I had no idea about what this flick was all about. Reading the short synopsis on imdb.com I was really interested. Knowing Smith stepped out of his comfort zone of comedy and dick and fart jokes had me interested, but slightly concerned. I, like many of you, I love his work and his style of monologue type dialog. But, even without seeing one frame, I was impressed. It's not easy to step away from what's worked for you. And a lot of people don't respond well to it when you do. But Red State started out with me going, "What the fuck?" and not ceasing to be impressed until the credits rolled.
Red State is the tale of a trio of high school friends who seek sex via the internet. While on their drunken journey to nearby Cooper's Dell, the trio side swipe a parked car that has two dudes going at it in the front seat. The group flee the scene and make their way to a single wide trailer that houses a middle aged woman waiting for their hard cocks. Or so they thought. After downing a few beers provided by the anonymous cock hound cougar, the trio find themselves waking up, bound, one in a dog kennel, the other two in the small crawl space of a church of a group of insane Right Wing, uber conservative Christians who not only loathe extra/premarital and homosexual sex, but picket the funerals of homosexuals and deviants alike, they are also armed to the fucking teeth with automatic weapons to bring about their crusade against the profane. But in addition to that, we learn that they have also been responsible for the murder of at least one young man from the nearby town where the high school boys are from. The kid in the kennel witnesses the execution of a man who has been bound in shrink wrap and his mouth stuffed with an S&M ball gag. Strange that a conservative group would have access to this type of accouterments. We learn that the group, The Five Points Baptist Church, has been using the internet to lure deviants to their doom. And I say deviants from their point of view. I could care less if someone wants to have sex with a man or a woman, married, single, extra marital, premarital or otherwise.
This movie gets dark quick, as the man is tied to a cross at the front of the church. The preacher, identified by his followers as "Daddy" and "grandpa," orders the young members to leave the room before they wrap the man's face and head and then blow his brains out. How, noble and righteous. You'll brainwash them to hate and they're probably inbreeding, but witnessing executions is FOR ADULTS ONLY. Apparently, even righteousness has it's limits. But go figure, cause in just a few years, those kids are going to be taking the reigns as handed down to them by their fucked up parents.
The group grabs the young man out of the kennel, and begins wrapping him up, binding him to the same cross. Down below in the crawl space, the two remaining friends escape using bone shards from the recently killed man who was dropped down into the little room. It gets seriously insane from here, when one of the kids finds the weapons stash and all hell breaks loose.
I really wanna tell you what happens, but I know I gotta save it for those of you who have yet to see it. And I highly recommend this flick. It is more fucked up than a donkey show with a chubby man giving that ass a sloppy blowjob. You probably never thought Smith would be able to top those antics, or getting a chubby Seth Rogen to disrobe on screen or a woman to blow bubbles with her twat. BUT HE DID! And Smith made such a great showing for himself with this coup de gras of bringing down the walls around psychotic Christian fundamentalists. Smith, as you may know, is a Catholic, although he is not devout, or practicing. He made Dogma and was smoten by Catholics who never dared step foot into the theatre to witness as he poked fun on his own faith. How might the insanely zealotous Right Wing population respond to this slap in the face? It's interesting, cause for people who love publicity and are righteous sure seem to shy away from stuff like this. They claim this isn't how they view the world, while they picket funerals, planned parenthood clinics and openly question the morality of other religious groups that have equally opposing views. Strange, cause they hate people like me, an educated, Atheist who believes in himself and thinks for himself, but you'd never see me waging war on a group of people, race, religion, gender or sexuality based. Atheists just don't do shit like that. Cause we don't put our faith into something that can't be proven or substantiated, that would have us kill our own son or massacre a people cause they were exploring their sexuality. Movies like this get me thinking and also get me mad. Cause it shows the extreme side to a belief structure that is based on the so called word of God, that was interpreted by man. And man is, in god's eyes, fallible. So, no doubt the words got fucking misinterpreted. Hmmm. makes me think this sounds like the people who read a book and take it as fact. Eisner, I hate Twilight fans. And I seriously don't understand how someone would honestly believe that a god that was once very pissy and egotistical would suddenly change his ways once he impregnates a thirteen year old girl. Or at least a portion of him did so. Cause not only is god god, but god is also Jesus AND the holy spirit? How the fuck is that possible? Oh and if god has always been, then why'd it take god so long to create the heaven and universe?
Enough soapboxing. This movie kicked all kinds of ass. Smith took his work to the next level, by moving completely out of his comfort zone. I have been a fan of Kevin Smith's work since Clerks, but recently, even being a fan, have admitted he is overrated. Perhaps one of the most overrated directors in Hollywood, along with Tarantino, Rodriguez, Peter Jackson, George Lucas and Shyamalan. But with this effort, Smith has far removed himself from that group and although he had it before, garnered even more respect from me. Fuckin' A I like it!
As you may or may not know, if you're not a follower of the Hardcore Review, I rate my reviews a bit differently than most. I don't give a shitty letter, number, a percentage or some stupid, overdone and easily identifiable, and without effort grade. No, here at the mother fucking ORIGINAL Hardcore Review I base my review upon hardcore moments in professional wrestling history. The more hardcore, blood filled and insane the moment, the more I fucking liked whatever the hell I am grading. And with this movie, I feel it deserves an equally controversial moment from the annals of wrestling history. It was the heyday of ECW. And the during the height of the Sandman/ Raven feud. Raven, kidnapped and brainwashed Sandman's wife and son. But that wasn't the ultimate. Raven attacks Sandman, and then with the help of Super Nova, Blue Meanie and Stevie Richards, CRUCIFIED Sandman. This moment left announcer Joey Styles speechless, and the crowd silent and visibly upset. With the heat from the moment and threats of a lawsuit from potential roster member Kurt Angle, Paul Heyman made Scotty Levy (Raven) go out and apologize to the crowd for offending them and bring up religious iconography. Which was hilarious in it's own right. Cause Raven admits, that he went out there with orders to make a sincere apology. Raven states that he did his best to make a sincerely insincere apology. All, I ask is that Smith never fucking apologize for his work. Well maybe Chasing Amy, but not Red State. If he does, I'll fucking make him fly Southwest AGAIN!.... if you know what I mean.