Red State

 Red State

Red State is very good film, but not without a few flaws.  It is a complete departure from Kevin Smith’s other films in style and writing.  However, the true shining actor is Michael Parks portraying the creepy Pastor Abin Cooper. 

Abin Cooper is leader of a fringe church that kidnaps sinners and murders them.  Cooper is loosely based on Fred Phelps.  Yet, Parks brings a different vibe to his Cooper character.  While Cooper is sinister and evil, he is very convincing with his twisted worldview.  He spews out his hatred with a soft-spoken voice and cruelness intent. 

John Goodman as the federal agent is amazing too.  Goodman has a good balance between being a good guy and bad guy.  That conflict of Goodman’s character probably needed to be explored more, but the movie moves at a brisk pace once the big gun battle begins. 

And, that’s another thing that is different about Kevin Smith’s direction for Red State.  All the action scenes in this movie are way better than the ones from Cop Out.  The camera moves are shaky, but never confusing like some of the modern action films.  Where as Smith’s other films had still camera, the camera seems to constantly moving.

There are some intense moments that I had to marvel at.  One has Cooper talking to a police officer trying to get him to leave the gates of the compound, before the officer hears something. 

The other thing I wanted to address that some have said this movie has a liberal bias to it, but that is not the case.  Surprisingly, it does hold a mirror up to the government taking it too far to the extreme views from the church. 

In the end, the movie could have been fleshed out with more background into the Cooper Church folks, but that is minor.  Overall, I enjoyed Red State.  It isn’t the best of Smith’s films, but it is certainly entertaining and uneasy to watch at times.  It is certainly a different direction for Kevin Smith and a good decision.  Not a bad movie…

Grade: B