RED RIDING HOOD
RYAN: I’m so on board with all the recent and forthcoming live-action remakes of fairy tales that Hollywood is offering, and I was really psyched to see Red Riding Hood starring Amanda Seyfried. So much so that I paid mine own 13 bucks to see it.
CAROLINE: I was kind of psyched for it too, though probably not as much as you; you have much more of an affinity for the supernatural than I. This movie is directed by Catherine Hardwicke, who did the first Twilight, so she’s got the whole werewolf thing down.
RYAN: She definitely didn’t hit a home run with Twilight, and she basically tried to remake Twilight with this movie. It was all wide tracking shots and panning shots of the woods, and even had the same color palette.
CAROLINE: I didn’t love the first 20 minutes of the movie and was preparing myself for a stinker, but luckily it got better as it went along.
RYAN: Totally. There were problems with the script early on that made the movie boring and disconnected. I didn’t really care about any of the characters. But things picked up once Gary Oldman arrived. He’s such a great actor. And I’m not at all biased that he’s in the Harry Potter movies.
CAROLINE: Yeah, right. The other thing about this movie that bugged me is I’m not sure Amanda Seyfried is a great actress. I know we both love her and she was a doll in Mamma Mia!; but since then I feel like she’s been doing the same exact thing with every role.
RYAN: I agree this wasn’t her best role, but I think she’s a better actress than, say, Scarlett Johansson. I’ll tell you who was really great – the women who played her mom and grandmother, Virginia Madsen and Julie Christie.
CAROLINE: It’s nice to see V. Mad getting work again. But there was one scene where her face was side by side with Amanda Seyfried, and they literally looked the same age. Girlfriend must have had some extensive work done.
RYAN: I was annoyed by the casting of Bella’s dad in Twilight as Red Riding Hood’s dad.
CAROLINE: He’s obviously a favorite of Catherine Hardwicke.
RYAN: Or maybe they’re sleeping together.
CAROLINE: It’s definitely an updated, more mature Red Riding Hood; she’s older and she’s choosing between two men. I can always get into a good love story, but neither was great here, and one of the dudes was such a terrible actor that I couldn’t take him seriously for a second.
RYAN: And one of them is Jeremy Irons’s son, by the way. Neither of them was hot enough to me. When you’ve got leading men like Robert Pattinson out there, these guys just paled in comparison.
CAROLINE: The stakes were never high enough for me in either relationship. I did like all the werewolf stuff though. And the second half of the movie is fun because you’re trying to figure out which of the townspeople is the werewolf.
RYAN: The costumes are great, and I liked the lighting.
CAROLINE: The look of it is very dark and gothic, which worked. It takes place in a medieval village, and some of the themes reminded me of that M. Night Shyamalan movie, The Village.
RYAN: The effects were decent, but I wished the movie were a little scarier. It didn’t make me jump at all.
CAROLINE: Part of the problem there is that this is targeting a younger audience, so they probably didn’t want to make it too scary.
— BOTTOM LINE —
RYAN: This movie is fair to good, but not great. I’m glad I saw it on the big screen, but I won’t be buying the Blu-ray or anything. It’s a stylish retelling of the fairy tale though, and I’m glad it’s out there, along with the other fairy tale movies I’m anticipating.
CAROLINE: I’m with you – I liked it, but didn’t love it. I’m glad it improved as it went along because the beginning kind of stank, and I was gearing up for a nap. I liked most of the cast and it’s enjoyable, but it’s more of a rental.
— RATING —
