The Good

A strong film that really takes us into the nature of the characters it presents.

The Bad

Not enough extra features.Avery Ludlow (Brian Cox) is a simple man who has taken a backseat on his life. He lives a quiet existence until his beloved dog is killed by 3 teenage boys for no apparent reason. After trying to extract some form of justice by the usual channels, Ludlow approaches Michael McCormack (Tom Sizemore), the boys father, but he isn't any help at all. Still stricken with grief, Ludlow decides that he must take the law into his own hands and sets about making things right in his own way.

Red is the kind of movie for which the independent film world exists. It is filled with great performances and really tells a touching tale of humanity gone awry.

Features

Interview with Brian Cox

Brian Cox seems like such an enjoyable person that it's very hard not to like him as both an actor and a human being. In this piece he talks about why he does independent films, how he uses studio films to subsidize them, and how he thinks that Red ectly embodies why actors want to make such daring pictures. He then talks about the character he plays, the subject matter of the film, and I was again impressed with how much thought he put into each answer.

Deleted Scenes

Video

Widescreen - 1.78:1. This movie looked really good on DVD. It seemed to straddle the two worlds of a movie in the moment, and one that was maybe structured a tad more formally. The compression on this disc was also really good. I didn't notice any pixilation and it didn't seem like things got overly baked anywhere either.

Audio

Dolby Digital. Language: English 5.1 and 2.0 Dolby Digital. Subtitles: Spanish. The audio on this release was well put together. The filmmaker and the audio department seem like they have gone out of their way to use the sound to get into the characters heads. There is a richness with the audio that leaves things haunting the viewer every step of the way.

Package

Brian Cox and Tom Sizemore are featured on this front cover. The back serves up more shots from the film, a tiny description, a Special Features listing, cast list and technical specs. The packaging isn't that amazing but for this movie it more than gets the job done.

Final Word

I remember when this movie was released. A friend of mine told me about it and we wanted to go see it, but since it only played in the theaters for about 2 seconds so that made it kind of hard. I have to say that I am consistently impressed with the quality of material that Magnolia Films releases. There is a richness to the movies that, while maybe not perfect, at least strives to show us something interesting or something that we maybe haven't thought about before. I think that in many ways the independent film scene has gotten passed the stagnation that it used to be in. Once primarily filled up with movies about dysfunctional families, it seems to have evolved into telling stories about anything and everything.

Red is a film that shows the benefits of allowing this varied slate of movies to be seen.