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Created Jan 29, 2012 10:30AM PST • Edited Jan 29, 2012 10:30AM PST

1. Quality

2. Summary

   OK 2.5

   A group of teens hoping for good times via an on-line ad instead end up with a isolated family group of fundamentalist Christians who set the trap for them and anyone else they deem as sinners. Michael Parks plays the gay-bashing fanatic Abin Cooper who preaches a bit too long in the beginning of the movie, but it serves to highlight the perverted fanaticism that drives the eventual shocking violence in this film. John Goodman then leads the good guys – in a humorous way (could he not?), in to a Waco like experience – with more gunfire and destruction than you’ll see in most war movies. Besides the death and destruction you’d expect, Red State ends in a twist that makes all sides look bad.

4. Acting

   Good 3.0

   Michael Parks gets the MVA award in Red State with a terrific portrayal of a fundamentalist zealot. Playing a lead-cop role must not have been a natural thing for John Goodman, but he pulls it off – not spectacularly, but respectably. Stephen Root is noteworthy for his version of a whiny, helpless, in-the-closet lawman.

5. Male Stars Good 3.0

6. Female Stars Good 3.0

7. Female Costars Good 3.0

8. Male Costars Good 3.0

10. Film

    OK 2.5

    The movie has an odd flow to it. Events don’t feel entirely connected although they all have the goal of showing how crazy the church-goers are. Trapped teens; gay-bashing; and plenty of gratuitous violence are used in a disjoint kind of way.

11. Direction OK 2.5

12. Play OK 2.5

13. Music OK 2.5

14. Visuals OK 2.5
15. Content

16. Edge

    Sordid 3.3

17. Sex Erotic 3.3

18. Violence Brutal 3.3

19. Rudeness Profane 3.3

21. Reality

    Surreal 2.1

22. Circumstantial Surreal 2.1

23. Biological Surreal 2.1

24. Physical Surreal 2.1