Red Stone

I can't stress enough how bored I was watching this film. This wannabe John Wick picture fails in every part of the process of movie-making and that is why I mostly blame the director Derek Presley for the disappointment this film is. Except for Neal McDnough (who is doing what he can to save this picture) every character/actor seems bored, confused and actually bad at acting. Than you have the story itself with many random unexplained scenes and long slow camera shots, which I believe were an attempt at some more "refined" camera work, but felt like the director forgot to say "cut!" instead. Maybe with some editing it could have been salvageable, but as it is I cannot recommend it.

Would like to say that it's a slow burner, but it never really got hotter than lukewarm. The movie was too long and had too many dialog pauses, not much pace at all. If you are totally bored then I'd recommend it, just don't expect Boon (Neal McDonough) to save it, he was supposed to be a A dangerous hitman - I must have missed it.

So found this one along and thought it looked like a modern western and it has one of my favorite actors in Michael Cudlitz - Shout out to Gross Point Blank- McDonough is always fun as a baddie.

POSITIVES; The cinematography was awesome. It was gritty and had a weird red vibe. It was old school with long shots and let the actors act. The sparse action scenes were cool and the f/x were solid and old school. This was definitely a love letter to old gangster films. The acting for the most part was great. Loved the Hutch role. Billy Blare was awesome.

NEGATIVES; It was billed as an action film. An article I saw said it was a western film too. It is not either. There is action in it and it was made in Texas, I think. But it's not a western. It's closer to a dixie mafia type film. Or like Justified without the action.

I didn't like the music. I appreciate what they were doing but it wasn't my favorite.

The film moves slow and that's okay for some people. But I think the way the movie preview made it look, some will think it's more action.

Overall really cool little gangster film. Some gritty moments too.

7/10.

OK, the good points:

1) great camera work 2) good music 3) some great actors

the bad points:

A) shockingly poor story B) totally unbelievable characters C) WAY too slow D) simply nothing to get invested in.

How on earth did something this bad every raise the budget to get made?

Wow, just wow. This movie was a complete waste of time. I was expecting it to slowly build it up for the ending, but NO. Sat through the whole thing, to see... That. Sloppy writing, horribly directed, bad pacing - real amateur hour. Damn shame for McDonough, though. Man can act really well, and at times I saw he tried, but the writing just wasn't there to make it work.

I suggest you skip this one, watch something else.