Day 210: "Abin Cooper holds this whole state up for ridicule."

This is not your usual Kevin Smith yukfest.  Red State Was actually confusing to me, as it is Kevin Smith's first real, I guess you'd call it, drama.  What starts out as some high school kids looking for sex online, degrades into a 99% less gory Hostel-esque encounter, then becomes a Waco-like standoff between the uber-conservative right wing Five Points Trinity Church.  These guys are so right wing that "...even the Nazis think these guys are nuckin futs."  It's really weird to watch because this is like three movies stapled together.  In the same way that From Dusk 'Til Dawn is a serious crime thriller and then suddenly it's a vampire movie, this is how Red State is.  A teen sex comedy, then a torture film, then a police standoff flick.  Seriously Kevin, make up your mind to pick a plot and run with it.  I wanted to like this a lot more than I did, but it was just too jumbled.

Smith has again picked a really good cast here, mostly made up of unknown but talented young actors.  Supporting them, he has a great group of adult stars: John Goodman, Melinda Leo, Stephen Root, and Michael Parks.  The acting in this is really great, I just wish the story held up its end of the deal.

In the end, a bit of a disappointment from Kevin Smith, but let's face it: most of his disappointments are better than some directors successes.  I really wanted this to be better than it was, but still a pretty good time looking at the bizarre workings of one of the most controversial sects of the current era....highly dramatized and I'm pretty sure satirized.  I really, really hope that it is a satire, because if it's anywhere NEAR (like the same continent near) accurate, that is proof positive of truth being stranger than fiction.  Please be satire...7.25/10.

See you tomorrow, and GO WATCH A MOVIE!!