Friday, January 7, 2011

Red Hill





Red Hill (2010)
Saw it last night, and liked it a lot. The heat wasn't working at the Lumiere Theater, making it even more of an immersive experience.








An effective blending of Western/vengeance/siege movie tropes, it takes place within a 24-hour period, and is set in a authentic feeling small-town setting surrounded by landscape which is actually integral to the story. Our young constable, who picked the wrong day to go to work without his gun, finds himself repeatedly stranded out of town, struggling to get back to help his fellow officers defend the town from an escaped prisoner.







The villain of the piece, Jimmy Conway, is a no-nonsense badass, whose preternatural abilities make it feel at times like a slasher movie, as if Halloween's Michael Myers strolled into John Sayles' Lone Star. The violent set-pieces are brutal and well-staged, and were the highlight of the film for me. Was let down somewhat in the third act by a couple of cliché music cues and some curious plot twists, but found it a solid genre effort overall.









Alex @ CHUD also gives it a positive review here.
It hits home video January 25.

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