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.

First and foremost...

Hola! Well this is all new and confusing. Excuse me if I seem a little lost, this is the first real time for me trying this blog type stuff. Basically, it's something that I've debated doing for a little while, just a way to get my thoughts down on the random shit that goes through my mind from time to time.


If I was a meal then films would be the steak, football would be the chips, music would be the mushrooms and onions, with food popping up as the condiments. I hope that's a clear enough analogy. If not then tough, I'm not awake enough to think of an actual decent analogy. Deal with it.


I'm just going to use this blog to give my random thoughts on random goings on. I can't promise a precise structure or that what you read will be relevant, it's just a case of whatever pops into my head or whatever I feel like getting off my chest. There may even be tapeworms involved, just to warn you. That's something that I'm working on at the moment, although I'm not entirely sure where that came from. I think it came from a discussion about urban myths. Anyways, I'll get to that in a later blog. For now, this is just an introductory blog type thing. I hope to add pictures and videos once I've got into my comfort zone with all the fangled options involved in this blogging stuff. I was thinking of possibly going through my 10 favourite film scenes or favourite uses of music in film. Just ideas at the moment, but that's the type of thing that I'm looking at doing. I may even throw a few funky pictures of real life into this. Well, as real as it gets living in the 'hood' of Wrexham.


I guess that kind of gets the first post out of the way. Nothing too exciting but mainly just a way for me to see what this is all about. I'm off out on little trip to the cinema shortly. Fright Night's been released today and, as a huge horror geek, I'm all kinds of excited about seeing it. I know, I know, the original Fright Night is such an awesome film. I'm not really for re-makes/re-boots/re-imagings of films but, whilst I'll bitch and moan, I'll still go along and watch these films. I guess that keeps the studios happy - "All of these fans are bitching about how shit our film is and how it's sacrilegious to re-make 'insert film title here' but these same people pay to go and watch these films, meaning I can afford my monthly holiday to my own private island full of curvaceous, willing ladies". Yep, that gets the studios right where it hurts...


Anyways, I can feel myself going off on a slightly random tangent. Time to get it back on track. I've now got urges to talk about the films that I've seen in recent months, The Rise of the Planet of the Apes, Captain America, Thor, Green Lantern, Submarine, Scream 4, but I'll resist the urge. I'm even getting urges to blog about the sad loss of Mikel Arteta. On a quick note there, I'm still gutted about Arteta moving to Arsenal. I'm not an Everton fan, I'm a Wrexham fan. Over the years I've built up quite the soft spot for Everton, mainly down to a huge dislike of anything related to Liverpool FC and also down to my love of all things Mikel Arteta. There's not many players like him in the British game, a central playing midfielder who can pull out tricks and also put a ball on someone's toe from 60 yards. Now I'm not saying he's a Paul Scholes when it comes to passing, and I'm not saying he's a Cristiano Ronaldo when it comes to tricks, I'm just saying Arteta is different to most players that you see in the British game. Granted, at times he was used on the right, even on the left on occasions, but he is just a very special talent. It only dawned on my over the last few days that a good part of the reason that I have this soft spot for Everton is purely down to Mikel Arteta. Logically, out of the bigger players that could've gone, then it makes sense for Mikel to be the one. Losing Baines or Jagielka would've been a big blow, whereas Everton are blessed for numbers in midfield. Arteta, Cahill, Osman, Neville, Rodwell, Barkley and Fellaini all battling for 3 places in the middle of the park. I guess it makes sense for one of them to go, and I suppose the positive spin on this is that it finally gives Rodwell his chance to prove if he is going to be good enough. Rodwell's had potential for years. For years he's been talked about as a future England player, yet he struggles to get 20 games a season. Maybe this is the chance for him to step up, for Ross Barkley to stake his claim. I'm still gutted to lose Arteta, but it makes sense in a way and no Evertonian can really begrudge him his move. He's getting the chance of Champions League football and, at 29, it could be his last chance at really getting to play at the top level of club football. I'd have loved for him to have gotten Everton back to that level but the problems at Everton are to be saved for another blog. I'm just going to go out and say how sorry I feel for David Moyes. The guy has an impossible task.


And stop. Death breath. I can feel myself going off on another rant. Right, time to wrap this up. The Odeon is calling me so I best get my shit together, grab a quick shower, possibly a KFC, and get myself to the cinema.


And that was the end of his first blog...