09-05-2011, 07:41 AM
It's the new Kevin Smith horror movie. It's like nothing he's done before. It's the last but one film he will ever do. It's the film Kevin Smith used to give Hollywood the bird by coming up with a new distribution model.
I often question myself why I continue to pay any attention to Smith and his films. It could be because he's on my local morning radio show frequently. It could be his Hollywood Babylon podcast occasionally rises to the point of humor. But he's crude and most of his films aren't that good. I did like 'Dogma' and 'Jay and Silent Bob strike back', but on the whole they just seem to be recordings of dialogues he has with his buddies.
The one thing he is good at is being a raconteur. He tells great stories. He tells bad stories too, but on the whole I can listen to that man talk.
Which brings us to Red State. He's been talking about this film for most of my adult life, it seems. When it appeared on VOD, I felt compelled to buy it immediately.
The side story. I bought the film on Directv and recorded it to the DVR. tQ and I went to watch it the following night. Five minutes in, a screen popped up telling me I needed to buy the film. But I had bought the film. That's why it was recorded to my DVR. I went through quite a few peregrinations to get it to play. I sparred with the automated system at Directv. It won. The problem seemed to be I didn't have the dedicated phone line attached to the system. Something I haven't used in the three years since I have had the HD system. I finally talked to a real person at Directv. We rebooted the system. Wiped the recorded version I had. Programmed the DVR to try and record again.
On Saturday morning, I checked to see if it had recorded overnight. It had. I watched it for a few minutes. It played beyond the point of the blue info pop screen. I figured I had finally got the 'Red State'
tQ and I settled in to watch it on Saturday night. Ten minutes from the end of the film, it cut off again. I was informed I needed to buy the picture. More yelling and screaming. When I checked the movie on Directv, it was playing merrily along on another station. I had paid for it. They just needed me to suffer. On the other station, delayed by an hour, we eventually saw the thrilling conclusion.
As far as Kevin Smith films go, it was pretty good. Somebody finally told him about cutting and action. The film actually had a tone and a palette.
Compared to other films, it was pretty medium. Kevin Smith is a man in love with his own words. There were two scenes that just went on forever. One was with Michael Parks preaching. And after a minute or so you got the point of the scene. But it just kept going and going. And Parks mumbles. Half the time, you wondered what he just said. The other was a scene in a stable with John Goodman. Another speech. His costar chewed the scenery something fierce. Yawn
It's billed as a horror movie, but I don't know where the horror was supposed to come in. It does have a great cast but they all only had one note to play. It was odd seeing our radio personality Ralph Garmin in the movie. Which kind of took us out of the movie. But he did a good job as the mute, Caleb.
I would wait until it was out on regular DVD and you don't have to pay 11 bucks for it.
I often question myself why I continue to pay any attention to Smith and his films. It could be because he's on my local morning radio show frequently. It could be his Hollywood Babylon podcast occasionally rises to the point of humor. But he's crude and most of his films aren't that good. I did like 'Dogma' and 'Jay and Silent Bob strike back', but on the whole they just seem to be recordings of dialogues he has with his buddies.
The one thing he is good at is being a raconteur. He tells great stories. He tells bad stories too, but on the whole I can listen to that man talk.
Which brings us to Red State. He's been talking about this film for most of my adult life, it seems. When it appeared on VOD, I felt compelled to buy it immediately.
The side story. I bought the film on Directv and recorded it to the DVR. tQ and I went to watch it the following night. Five minutes in, a screen popped up telling me I needed to buy the film. But I had bought the film. That's why it was recorded to my DVR. I went through quite a few peregrinations to get it to play. I sparred with the automated system at Directv. It won. The problem seemed to be I didn't have the dedicated phone line attached to the system. Something I haven't used in the three years since I have had the HD system. I finally talked to a real person at Directv. We rebooted the system. Wiped the recorded version I had. Programmed the DVR to try and record again.
On Saturday morning, I checked to see if it had recorded overnight. It had. I watched it for a few minutes. It played beyond the point of the blue info pop screen. I figured I had finally got the 'Red State'
tQ and I settled in to watch it on Saturday night. Ten minutes from the end of the film, it cut off again. I was informed I needed to buy the picture. More yelling and screaming. When I checked the movie on Directv, it was playing merrily along on another station. I had paid for it. They just needed me to suffer. On the other station, delayed by an hour, we eventually saw the thrilling conclusion.
As far as Kevin Smith films go, it was pretty good. Somebody finally told him about cutting and action. The film actually had a tone and a palette.
Compared to other films, it was pretty medium. Kevin Smith is a man in love with his own words. There were two scenes that just went on forever. One was with Michael Parks preaching. And after a minute or so you got the point of the scene. But it just kept going and going. And Parks mumbles. Half the time, you wondered what he just said. The other was a scene in a stable with John Goodman. Another speech. His costar chewed the scenery something fierce. Yawn
It's billed as a horror movie, but I don't know where the horror was supposed to come in. It does have a great cast but they all only had one note to play. It was odd seeing our radio personality Ralph Garmin in the movie. Which kind of took us out of the movie. But he did a good job as the mute, Caleb.
I would wait until it was out on regular DVD and you don't have to pay 11 bucks for it.
So much for the flickr badge idea. Dammit