Red Riding Hood

Big Red Riding Hood-S1E16

source: Red Riding Hood

Amanda Seyfried plays Valerie, a young girl in a village fearful of an ungodly werewolf that has been terrorizing them for twenty years. Its latest victim is Valerie's sister. So to solve the mystery of who the werewolf is, as well as to kill the creature, they seek the help of a religious priest (Played by Gary Oldman), a man experienced in the killing of a wolf. One night, the wolf attacks, but Valerie discovers that... she can talk... to the... wolf... zzzz... zzzz... What? Oh, sorry. I guess I'm as bored summarizing the plot of the movie as I was watching the actual movie. First of all, Amanda Seyfried makes an attractive fit for the role of Valerie, and the production design of the film is interesting, but that's as close to complimentary as I'm going with this movie. Director Catherine Hardwicke really has trouble keeping an even sense of rhythm, and the cast is a serious disappointment. Gary Oldman hams up the scene, while Julie Christie is sadly exploited for her willingness to stand around and do nothing. The leading men of Valerie have the personalities of water and sandpaper, while Billy Burke and Virginia Madsen can't make anything out of their roles. They do bad jobs, but it isn't all their fault. I know I'D have trouble trying to do a half decent job with this kind of writing. The screenplay is awful beyond comprehension. Full of contrivances, unbearable dialogue, and a needless sense of piling on characters, and twists and turns until the final product is a total WTF of lame explanations. I wouldn't be surprised if someone fell asleep watching the movie, but I also wouldn't be surprised if they woke right up. The movie, with it's musical thumps and white noise, is near as loud as a rock concert... and I never could understand why they felt the need to play alt. rock music during a period piece. In short: One or two bright spots - bland acting + ridiculous screenplay + off pacing = Terrible. Red Riding Hood = * out of ****

It's almost inevitable for many to link this to Twilight just because director Catherine Hardwicke is at the helm, and the story having elements of a love triangle coupled with the presence of a werewolf - yes the big bad wolf has evolved from being Big Bad to hulking proportions seen in the Twilight films, but don't let this unwarranted association detract you from what would be quite an adult retelling of this aged old story done in stylized terms and dripping with plenty of sensuality. The largest credit here will go to the story as re-imagined by David Johnson, crafting something that would appeal to the Twilight generation weaned on a love story with some supernatural elements that many fantasy films of late would have aspired to be, but failed. It's kept relatively simple with the basic character set up of Red Riding Hood, her family, the grandma out in the woods, the wolf and the woodcutter saviour, but updated for the modern audience in quite intelligent, engaging terms, putting together an intriguing guess who mystery with tragic twists. Amanda Seyfield may have progressed to more adult fare in Atom Egoyan's Chloe, but here retained some girlish innocence with quite the bold, rebellious streak hidden underneath her Valerie's virginal demeanour, forming a long friendship that blossomed into a relationship with woodcutter Peter (Shiloh Fernandez). But alas her family in wanting her to have a better life, betrothed her to blacksmith Henry (Max Irons), whom she is dead set against in marrying. In what would be like taking a leaf from M Night Shayamalan's The Village or Christophe Gans' Brotherhood of the Wolf, the community here is plagued by a werewolf problem, where 20 years of sacrificing animals for a truce have come to naught when Valerie's sister is found murdered, thus sparking off the villager's proactive hunt for the werewolf, coupled with help from the outside coming from Father Solomon (Gary Oldman), and his posse who seem to have abandoned from the Crusades. Though limited, this film does boast some nicely designed set action pieces in many large scaled battles, where Gary Oldman was at his element in wielding his character's unorthodox brand of justified punishment techniques, and being that self appointed voice in the name of religion to impose his will and style on the villagers. Once again the statement of hypocrisy reared its ugly head as a theme here. The production sets were gorgeous and so were the many costumes, with the crimson cloak and hood making a very striking appearance in stark contrast to the colour schemes around it, leading to very aesthetically pleasing scenes thanks to its picturesque environments and cinematography. Much has been said about Shiloh Fernandez who is better known as the Edward Reject, but I suppose stardom came late for this star whose good looks here will probably earn him a lot of fans given his alpha-male role. Max Irons too didn't let his lineage down, providing that ample, conflicted fodder for competition. Ah, the choices that a girl has to make to swear allegiance to one camp only. Additional supporting roles from Virginia Madsen, Billy Burke, Julie Christie, Lukas Haas and others all add to the fun in allowing the audience to partake in the deduction of the mystery in the film, which turned out, to me at least, quite the surprise thanks to the many inherent red herrings and suggestions which are more than likely to throw you off track. Like the reboot of Star Trek, Red Riding Hood is that surprise package in being able to find some common ground and believable rationale to tell the story the way it had to, coupled with recognizable elements from the classic so as not to alienate fans or abandoning what made it stand out altogether. The soundtrack of the film is to die for in my opinion, and I can't get the tunes out of my head, enough to go look for the soundtrack to experience the sensuousness all over again. My, what big features this film had indeed. Recommended!

Let's start with the fact that I'm not a Twilight hater. I've read the book, they were OK. But the movies were horrible, but not as horrible as this one. I've read some reviews, but I thought I'll give it a try, because I really like Amanda Seyfried. Unfortunately, no matter how much I like her, It was a bad movie. Let me explain the big issues: 1. Red Moon. Have you seen anywhere a red moon? Nope, you have not. Why ? Because there's no such thing AS A RED MOON. 2. The snow. The snow is white, cold and does not look like sand. And you cannot simulate snow with sand. Period. And from this comes item nr. 3: 3. This village is supposed to be set in the middle of the mountains, and after a heavy snowing, It's supposed to be damn cold. Well, that's not a problem for Mr. Edward ehmm.. excuse me, Harry I guess (I did not bother remembering his name) or the rest of the metro-sexually dressed young lumber jacks. They are dressed in the movie as if it's as much as in autumn, with their chest showing out, just like in Twilight :) Dear Catherine, maybe you grew up in Florinda and you haven't seen any snow. The snow usually appears when there is damn cold outside. And you have to dress up in that season. And yes, you can see your breath when you are outside. But not in this movie, of course. 4. The acting of the characters is quite good (well, Edward.. ehmmm lumber jack should exercise a little more), but the script is so awful and meaningless that even with a good acting you cannot mask that. 5. I forgot about the windows. M'am, good work there. You've used blurred windows, so then you don't have to worry about the exterior when shooting from inside. But,in one scene, if you look out on the window outside is light, then in the next scene, after the villagers come out from the pub, the windows shutters are closed. Good job, where is the light coming from then ? 6. The wolf. It's Jacob. A little bit smaller, but still him. And he talks of course. And looks awful, just like in Twilight. The same crappy CGI. Well, there are more... but I guess i've made my point. People, don't waste your money. If you want to see Amanda, go watch Mamma-Mia.

I will start by saying... I thought this movie was going to be just another "twilight" flick, but to my surprise it was not! The movie opens up pretty mysteriously and has you going until the very end! You just don't know what is going to happen next as you are watching. It is a really good spin to the classic "Red Riding Hood" tale, and I love how the writers incorporate a lot of the details from the story into the movie. And for people who are afraid to watch chick flicks... it had more action than some would think. I would personally say it is not a chick flick, just because a story has a romance in it doesn't hinder it from being good. Amanda Seyfried did an awesome job acting along with her co-stars, and personally Billy Burke played a better father in this flick. And the soundtrack was great! I've become addicted. This movie is definitely worth the rent, or buy, or at least a watch on netflix. Not a waste of time.

I absolutely loved this movie. I have seen it several times. The work they performed on the computerized wolf is outstanding. The cast is excellent and the story is horror and Gothic at it's best. The music score on this film is goth, haunting, and awesome. This movie may not be for all, but for a werewolf thriller, it is one of my all time favorites. It takes an old story and puts a different twist. Imagine a story which seems to be set in an old Transylvania village put to upbeat music and a very romantic story line. I know it has had some bad reviews, personally it is a love/horror/werewolf thriller that is a winner to me. Red Riding Hood is worth watching and then some.

I went to the cinema today with two good friends to see this film. I had seen the trailer and got worked up that this would be a good film. However, it is not as good as it could have been. Don't get me wrong, I did enjoy some of the film. Amanda Seyfried, Shiloh Fernandez, Max Irons and the excellent Gary Oldman acted brilliantly in the film, and the effects for the Werewolf were pretty fantastic as well. However, the rest of the cast let this film down and although it is classed as a "horror" movie, there is only really one jump-worthy moment. I don't want to give away the secret of the wolf, but if you listen closely, you can easily tell who it is... There is a bit of gore, but if you are into some of the supernatural stuff (especially Twilight, even though I'm not a fan), you should give it a shot and might like this... but horror-lovers, keep well away, you might end up feeling a bit ripped-off...

This film is a steaming pile of cinematic poop. It's dreadful in every single way. There's not one nice thing I can muster to say about it. It makes the Twilight series, which it so blatantly and unashamedly mimics, look positively brilliant. I can understand the logic from Warner Bros; in a time where Edward Cullen and Bella Swan rule the roost, why wouldn't you want to get in for your share of the pie. I'm sure it will reap the rewards at the box office thanks to the universal lack of taste teenage girls have in picking fads. That doesn't stop it being the worst movie of recent years. It all begins with the downright hilarious dialogue. In a film rife with atrocities, this stands tall as the most dreadful of the lot. I almost feel sympathy towards the actors as no-one, and I mean no-one, could make some of those clunkers work. Trite clichés such as "I don't want you to see me like this" (complete with sooky head turn) and "I'll do anything to be with you" (barf) rear their ugly head throughout. Even the attempted humour, mainly from Julie Christie's Grandmother, falls flat thanks to some lamely scripted jokes. Hardwicke does what she can to emulate her Twilight success, but her regurgitating attempts at hitting gold twice is boring, lazy and worthy of the regret she'll feel at the end of her career looking back. Youngsters Seyfried, Fernandez and Irons can be forgiven for signing on as I'm sure they all had grand illusions of being the next Bella, Edward of Jacob. I can even give Burke and Haas a pass as they're not exactly thespians of a standard where they can be too fussy with their roles. What I can't figure out though, is what in the hell is Gary Oldman doing here? An actor who has produced so many memorable characters and starred in so many fantastic films, Hardwicke must've beaten a drunken Oldman in a game of poker to get him to appear in this garbage. Surely he didn't select this role whilst of a sane and sober mind. Hopefully for him his upcoming Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy and The Dark Knight Rises wash away all memory of Red Riding. Pathetic. 1 out of 5 (1 - Rubbish, 2 - Average, 3 - Good, 4 - Great, 5 - Brilliant)

There is no kind way to say this: aside from Gary Oldman, Julie Christie and Amanda Seyfried; the acting is awful. I think the script, dialog, and acting would have definitely improved if the writers had given more elegance to the words by using a more elevated dialog like Shakespeare or Jane Austin. The romantic elements are weak and there was great opportunities lost for heart wrenching moments for scenes of both grief and affection. The special effects were less than what I expected, and I expected a more magical look and feel to the general photography. There were times when this movie had dialog that looked and sounded dubbed. It was distracting and I hope this film is not nominated for sound. I did however like the plot. Youlately ****

I absolutely love the tale of Red Riding Hood. But this 'vision' of it was absolutely HORRIBLE. The acting was terrible and i believe that was the saddest part because a lot the actors in this film are very good actors. Great set of actors HORRIBLE director! There was too much 'twiligh' to actually figure out that it was completely different story. I mean the beginning was exactly the same as twilight for a minute there i was expecting to see the story of how mr. glittery vampire came to be. And the wolf was pathetic. All i thought when i saw it was, 'Jacob Black dyed his hair'. Not too mention that the entire first part of the book was non existent. This movie made me want to go home and scrub myself clean. Save your money.