Red State!

I recently got the chance to see a film that has had my attention since it was first announced. I'm a Kevin Smith guy, I love his films, I love the characters, I love the whole in-jokes thing, I love his Star Wars fascination, I love his comics obsession, I love his references, I love his dialogue, I love that he was the man that first showed me Jason Lee, I love the tight-knit group of actors that he uses in all of his films. So, yeah, there's a lot of Kev love from me. I also happen to be a big lover of the horror genre. My most traumatic experience as a kid was watching Jaws at the age of approximately 4. I never recovered. To this day, I still don't go in the sea. I also hate flying due to my shark phobia. That's why they call these things irrational films. Anyways, from as long as I can remember I've always been a horror fan. Jaws, Halloween, A Nightmare on Elm Street, Friday 13th, The Thing, Scream, Texas Chainsaw Massacre, It, An American Werewolf in London, Switchblade Romance, The Devil's Rejects, The Changeling (no, not the one with Mrs Brad Pitt in it), Trick 'r' Treat, Body Bags, Shivers, Creepshow - all favourites of mine. I'll watch any horror film, the worse the better. The low budget shit that gets shown at 3am on a Tuesday night on Zone Horror? I'll watch it. The sequel to the film that used to be good 6 sequels ago? I'll watch it. The totally unnecessary crossover of horror characters? I'll watch it. The one about a girl who is bullied at camp but then ends up being a transsexual serial killer? I'll watch it (see Sleepaway Camp). The point is, I'll watch any horror film going, regardless of quality. I even went to the cinema to watch Boogeyman. Right, so keep up, you've got Kevin Smith, director of some of my favourite films (Mallrats!!!!!), user of some of my favourite vulgarities (cunt rag), fanboy galore of all things comics-related, and who is now branching out to the field of horror. It's a perfect mix for me. The only hitch was that Smith was releasing the film in a totally unique way. He was basically cutting out all studio involvement and releasing the film himself, marketing the film himself, selling the film to himself. From there on out he's been moving across the USA and touring the film from cinema to cinema, town to town, state to state. I didn't hold out much hope of the film getting released over on this side of the pond, but there are scheduled showings set up at the moment, some involving Q&A sessions with Smith. Luckily for me, I managed to watch the film over the weekend. I've been looking to get tickets for the Red State showing and Q&A session at Odeon, Manchester later on this week, but the tickets have sold out. Either way, I've managed to view the film this weekend. Here's the trailer for anybody that hasn't heard of the film or has no idea as to what the film is about:

The film initially focuses on a group of three teenage friends, one of which arranges to meet a girl that he has met on the Internet. It turns out that he's managed to get this hot girl to agree to a foursome involving the three guys. It's probably best to point out now that the film actually opens by showing a group of people protesting outside of the funeral of a gay US solder. As it happens, after the three friends arrive at the trailer of the aforementioned hot lady it turns out to be a case of false advertising. Instead of the hot, young girl that has been talking to one of the friends, the person they find upon arrival is a middle aged Melissa Leo. The friends decide to go for it anyway, with one thing leading to another and them waking up amongst a cult. The cult are against homosexuality, sex, drugs, alcohol, etc. Generally all the good stuff - bar the homesexuality, although that's a matter of choice. Rather than tolerate the differences of others, the cult has their own methods of dealing with those that do not see things in the same way that they do, and their methods are extreme. Just as things start to take shape, John Goodman and his team of special agents turn up to help out the local Sheriff. Everything goes a bit bat-shit crazy once Goodman's boss gives him certain orders over the phone. That's all I'm going to say about the plot so that I don't give away too much. That said, "simple just shit itself" is my favourite film quote of recent memory. Genius from the man Smith!

Whilst Red State was classed as a horror I'd tend to lean more towards thriller/chiller than out and out horror. The horror aspect is more the extremities that these type of people go to in order to force their opinions on people. It's a great film that really pulls at the emotions at times. There's a few familiar faces in there, even a more filled-out Jen Schwalbach popping up along the way. I'd definitely recommend Red State but I'm not sure to who. I'm not sure that it's got a particular target audience. It's not an out-and-out horror, it's not a completely psychological affair, it's not an action movie, yet it seamlessly mixes elements of all three. It's a big change from Smith's usual fare although there's still certain parts of the dialogue that stand up there with some of Smith's more memorable. One thing I do have to say is that Michael Parks is fantastic again. Absolutely fantastic. According to Smith, Parks ad-libbed large parts of his diatribes. That's not a totally unheard of concept but you'll really appreciate that once you see how good Parks is in this. If you get the chance, get yourself along and watch Red State in the coming weeks. You won't be disappointed. If you are then you're of no use to me anyway.

On a sadder note, I've just heard that Cliff Robertson has died today at the age of 88 from natural causes. Being the superhero geek that I am, Cliff was Uncle Ben in the Spider-man trilogy to me. That said, he's one of those faces that you always see pop up in so many films and shows over the decades. To others he may be more remembered for his role in Charly and the Oscar that came with it, but to me he's Uncle Ben. Rest in Peace, sir.

Food time for me. I think it may be a Pant yr Ochain kinda day.

The Inbetweeners Movie

Right, so I've finally gotten around to watching The Inbetweeners Movie. Until last night I was in what felt like the 5% of the population that hadn't seen the film. It wasn't that I didn't want to see the film, it wasn't because I didn't like the TV show. For anybody that knows me, I'm a very, very crude and sarcastic person most of the time. So a TV show such as The Inbetweeners is right up my alley. The reason that I put off seeing the film for a few weeks is that the cinemas were constantly rammed with people who were seeing this film. Normally I'd pop along on one of my days off in the week but with it being the summer holidays then it still meant that students were in the cinema. Call me a grumpy old man but I like my cinema to be as void of people as much as possible. When I go to the cinema then I go to watch the film, I pay attention and take in as much detail as I can. So, add in a load of people who are chatting amongst themselves, dicking around on their phones or just generally being cocks, then it annoys the piss out of me. Hence me waiting for a few weeks to catch this film once some of the hype had died down. My cunning plan worked flawlessly as there was a grand total of 9 people in the cinema and I was one of those. It's a good film, an entertaining way to pass 80 odd minutes. It most definitely had some very funny parts, some brilliantly crude lines. The plot was stupidly predictable but that's to be expected with this sort of film. It works as a film in the same way as an American Pie, Private Parts, Dodgeball or a Kevin & Perry Go Large. It's not going to change your life but it's a fun way to pass the time. It's entertaining, pure and simple. Obviously the film's helped in the fact that it already has a solid and established audience. People know what to expect from the characters, from the script and from the dialogue. It's not for everybody, but I'm sure that people who have found the show to be a turn off won't bother to watch the film. In theory, that means that everybody that watches the film should enjoy it. That said, my mum was talking to me yesterday about going and watching it even though she's never watched the TV show and has no idea of the concept of the show or the film. That should be fun for her.

I feel a little let down by myself as I've had the last 5 days off work, and with those days I was planning on catching 5 different films. The plan was to take in, in no particular order, Fright Night, The Inbetweeners, Cowboys & Aliens, Apollo 18 and Conan. Final Destination 5 was also possibly on my hit list. I've only managed to get through 2 of those, although I did spend one day watching Wrexham play (and all that comes with it) so I guess that wasn't a total waste. Apollo 18 really had my interest until I listed to Turek on the Shock Waves podcast at Shock Till You Drop (Click here to listen to Shock Waves). They really buried the film and it got a brutal review. Normally I can take or leave reviews, but those guys normally get their shit spot on. I may still try and catch Apollo 18 at some point, although my interest has waned a lot. Final Destination was on my agenda until I read about there being a scene involving laser eye treatment. As a specs wearer, the thought of that kinda freaks me out. I'm not a fan of things poking round my eyes, hence why I choose not to wear contact lenses. Cowboys & Aliens has been on my hit list for a few weeks now but I was more warm to the concept and idea than the practicality. It just doesn't look right. I dunno. I'm pretty sure I'll end up catching it before it's cinema run ends. Conan, I'm not so sure.

One thing that has gotten my giddy, that I forgot to mention a few blogs ago, is that the trailer for Shark Night 3D was shown when I caught Fright Night. Now, I'd seen the trailer online before so there was no major surprise in that sense. The surprise to me was that the trailer was being shown in my little Odeon in the first place. The cinema here, the Odeon, isn't the biggest. It shows all of the major movies. A film like Shark Night, I thought, would fall by the wayside and not get a cinema run in my neck of the woods. In my head, by showing the trailer for the film then it's basically them committing to showing the film upon it's release. At least that's how it works in my head. That said, I wasn't expecting them to run Fright Night. Maybe I should give the Odeon a bit more credit. If they want to make a good impression on me then they'll somehow manage to have a word with Kevin Smith and get hold of Red State. Still, I'm looking at getting up to Manchester to see Red State and then attend a Q & A with Kev afterwards. I just need to think of a question to top my friend's previous question of if you were half man/half sausage, would the sausage be the top half or the bottom half. That's a deep question right there.

For those that haven't seen the Shark Night 3D trailer then have a little click below. I'll hold my hands up and admit it looks shit, but it's my kind of shit. As a man that has a completely irrational fear of sharks (so much so that I get freaked out on airplanes due to the thought of sharks), I still get intrigued and interest in every single shark film out there, regardless of how shitty it is. Maybe subliminally I'm watching all of these to make sure that I have every single option covered when it comes to ways to kill a shark so that I'm fully prepped for when I have my face off with those grinning motherfuckers. Here's the trailer:

Anyways, on that note I should shoot off as I've got a report type thing to do for the end of this week that I really need to pull my finger out on. That and Wales are playing England at Wembley in a few hours. There's optimism there from me, but then I've never been a realist.

Cymru Am Byth :)