Red State is completely senseless

Red State (DVD/Blu-Ray) - Dir. Kevin Smith. Starring Michael Parks, Melissa Leo, John Goodman.

There are moments early on in Red State-say, when Pastor Abin Cooper (Michael Parks) is giving a creepy, charismatic, oddly convincing sermon about the depravity of mankind-that give us a glimpse of what writer/director Kevin Smith was probably trying to accomplish with this film.

They don't last long.

Smith's story about three teenage boys kidnapped by a murderous fundamentalist cult (bearing a striking resemblance to the Westboro Baptist Church) goes from "creepy" to "nauseating" so quickly and so emphatically that you may be left wondering if you'll ever feel anything else again.

Through a series of increasingly ridiculous plot developments, the kidnappings are stepped up to ritualistic murders, a mutual slaughter between police and church members, and then-just maybe-the end of the world.

Kevin Smith, who has sometimes acknowledged his lack of a directorial "style," makes an ill-conceived attempt to develop one here. His haphazard use of misframed shots, hyperactive editing, and randomly inserted shakeycam/steadicam only serve to make the film physically difficult to watch.

But worse than all of that are the clumsy attempts at adding depth to the movie through John Goodman's ATF agent character-as though Smith imagines that framing a bit of symbolism and phony moral conflict around his bloodbath will turn it into No Country for Old Men.

Goodman's character, for instance, receives orders to massacre a compound full of women and children as he examines a wound to his knee (Wounded Knee, get it?). Later, he and his men agonize over the ethics of their mission for about as long as it takes them to load their weapons.

The final insult is at the climax, when the story reaches a point of such irreversible stupidity that Smith literally gives up, cuts to a quiet room, and has Goodman describe the finale for us. By this point, his long-winded explanations sound almost like apologies for the hopeless, directionless mess the film has become.

Red State might have been salvageable as a purebred campy gore fest instead of an unholy marriage between a shocker flick and a police procedural. The resulting product must reconcile the mindlessness of a trashy horror film with the storytelling obligations of a serious drama. It fails, and left sitting on the table is some seriously weighty subject matter-like Christians shown systematically executing gays.

What is this movie trying to be, besides an unfocused barrage against religious fundamentalism and government wickedness? What themes does it explore during its serious moments, if we don't count "people's faces exploding" as a theme?

Don't look too hard for the answers.

Rated R for holy war.

2 out of 5

Trespass (DVD/Blu-Ray) - Dir. Joel Shumacher. Starring Nicolas Cage, Nicole Kidman, Liana Liberato.

A diamond broker (Nicolas Cage) has his home invaded and his family (Nicole Kidman and Liana Liberato) held hostage by a gang of deranged robbers. Convinced that the thugs won't leave them alive, he attempts to negotiate for his family's lives.

Trespass doesn't lack tension-it lacks purpose. The story is so straightforward and ordinary that the film hardly justifies its existence, much less the involvement of its fairly big-name talent. (Apart from Nicolas Cage, of course, who appears to choose his projects based on how many opportunities they give for screaming and howling incoherently. This is his ideal role).

Trespass is short even the plot content to fill its scant 1:30 running time, which is why the action resets back to a standoff in the same room four or five times before the end.

Shallow character development takes up the remaining minutes. The villains are given some fleshing out through flashbacks, but it seems to be done more as a social courtesy than as a part of the plot, like the man sitting next to you on a plane introducing himself before a long flight. Signs of rebellion shown by the teenage daughter at the start of the film don't establish anything relevant about her relationship to her parents except that one exists. Talk of marital difficulties between the main characters flies in and out of the story, but we're never given a reason to care. Even the characters don't seem to care.

There isn't much to say about Trespass, because Trespass doesn't have much to say. This is a movie about bad people terrorizing good people, and not a lot else.

Rated R for assault, unlawful confinement. And trespassing, I guess.

2.5 out of 5