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Critics Consensus: Amanda Seyfried is magnetic in Red Riding Hood's starring role, but she's let down by her uninspired leading men and a painfully cliched script.
Critic Consensus: Amanda Seyfried is magnetic in Red Riding Hood's starring role, but she's let down by her uninspired leading men and a painfully cliched script.
All Critics (201) | Top Critics (40) | Fresh (21) | Rotten (180) | DVD (4)
Have you had questions about the motivations of the wolf, or suspicions about Grandma? Have you pondered the sexual connotations of this age-old fairy tale? Me neither. Just the same, someone has made a movie about...
Yes, there's enough connection with the source's underlying issues of repression and desire to give this reason to exist, but, boy, does Hardwicke labour in getting from fairy tale to would-be psycho-thriller.
More "Twilight" than Grimm, and a terrible mess.
Hardwicke directed Twilight, you'll recall, and would apparently like to continue directing it, over and over again.
Catherine Hardwicke is Anne Rice with a camera.
Just when you think you've finished with one of these annoying franchises, another one pops up to plague you.
We like a turkey, don't we, children? We like a big fat turkey we can dance around, crowingly, don't we? Haven't we had a lot of fun doing that over the years? But this is such a dismal runt of a turkey.
The clunky dialogue, overstuffed story and cartoonish special effects riddle the lycanthropic fantasy thriller like a hail of silver bullets.
The creepiness here comes not just from the head-chomping, but also from the way young women are treated in this tiny, medieval village.
Director Catherine Hardwicke is out to tap into the demographic of 13 to 18-year-old tweens who fund these gothic soap operas with their babysitting money.
There's no tension or angst in this movie... and the cheapsies SFX and bored, disinterested performances from the cast killed whatever moody emo vibe Hardwicke was trying to evoke.
Until women stop making movies about girls who are independent only as far as what man they choose to be with, they're never going to be considered for anything meatier.
Gary Oldman, as the fiery preacher out to rid the world of demons and their influence, saves this bedtime story that confuses itself with a typical detective whodunit (only here it's who-is-it: who's the big, bad wolf? Is it the town mayor, or the blacksmith, or ... just who is it?). The other characters concern themselves with Riding Hood's secondary concern, which is who will bed her? Thank goodness Oldman was in this, underwritten as it was for a teenage crowd!
Super Reviewer
Wasn't too sure what to expect with this being based on a children's fable yet filmed as a serious horror/thriller flick, to my pleasant surprise it was quite enjoyable and had a nice gothic almost German expressionist type feel to it that you might expect from directors such as Burton or Gilliam. The film isn't much of a horror as its not really scary at all so don't be thinking its gonna be a blood fest, there are some bloody moments but nothing extreme. The film is on a fine line between fantasy and thriller with an element of sexual fantasy running through the plot for young teenage girls, nothing strong, think along the lines of 'Twilight' teenage angst mixed with 'Cursed' or a little bit of 'Ginger Snaps' but not as in your face as those films, there is still an enjoyable werewolf film here. Much fun comes from Oldman as Father Solomon the werewolf hunter who gives a boarder line hammy performance but adds edge and giving the film that much needed bite of realism or stability, without that the film could easily have become laughable. Seyfried also gives a good performance as the lead Valerie which keeps the films head just above the water, apart from her and Oldman the rest of the cast aren't too good. Glorious visuals, nice and gloomy, dark and brooding set amongst snow coated forests of aggressive and gnarled looking trees, the sets are convincing yet the wolf CGI is slightly dubious in places. Simple plot which is handled quite well seeing as its only based on a short fairytale, it won't mesmerise you but its a decent solid werewolf flick.
Re-telling of the fairy with the werewolf terrorising the villagers. Good cast. Leonardo DiCaprio produces.
Went in with extremely low expectations on this one. I am not sold yet on Amanda Seyfried but she could turn out to be a decent actress. Gary Oldman as always was awesome and that alone notched up the film for me.
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