There are many things I don't like, being a skeptical horror/cult fanatic, but only a few things I absolutely cannot stand. One of the things I truly hate is reading and hearing everywhere (on internet forums, in festival reports, in specialized horror magazines, ...) that a certain film is extremely shocking and violent, only to then conclude this totally isn't the case!
Judging by the number of praising quotes on the DVD-cover, "Red, White & Blue" supposedly is a raw and uncompromising revenge exploitation/thriller, but it is one of the dullest, whiniest, and most frustratingly uneventful films I ever had to struggle through. To make it even worse, if that's even possible, it's also an incredibly pretentious flick. You can almost hear writer/director Simon Rumley think: "My movie is so much better than the others..."
"Red, White & Blue" exists of fake situations, utterly implausible characters, and suspense that continuously gets undercut by lousy editing and a cowardly narrative structure. There's a girl who has sex with literally every man who crosses her path, but the one man she refuses to sleep with - a weirdo Iraq veteran - platonically loves her so much that he goes on a killing rampage for her. Well, we can only assume he goes on a rampage, because this boring movie shows practically nothing. Whenever a potentially interesting event might happen, the scene abruptly ends or switches to something irrelevant. I found myself swearing at the screen numerous of times, and when finally some violence was shown explicitly, I couldn't care less anymore.
Judging by the number of praising quotes on the DVD-cover, "Red, White & Blue" supposedly is a raw and uncompromising revenge exploitation/thriller, but it is one of the dullest, whiniest, and most frustratingly uneventful films I ever had to struggle through. To make it even worse, if that's even possible, it's also an incredibly pretentious flick. You can almost hear writer/director Simon Rumley think: "My movie is so much better than the others..."
"Red, White & Blue" exists of fake situations, utterly implausible characters, and suspense that continuously gets undercut by lousy editing and a cowardly narrative structure. There's a girl who has sex with literally every man who crosses her path, but the one man she refuses to sleep with - a weirdo Iraq veteran - platonically loves her so much that he goes on a killing rampage for her. Well, we can only assume he goes on a rampage, because this boring movie shows practically nothing. Whenever a potentially interesting event might happen, the scene abruptly ends or switches to something irrelevant. I found myself swearing at the screen numerous of times, and when finally some violence was shown explicitly, I couldn't care less anymore.