Featured Audience Ratings

• John M

  
  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.

• Candy R

  
  Re-telling of the fairy with the werewolf terrorising the villagers. Good cast. Leonardo DiCaprio produces.

• Christopher H

  
  Out of all the movies to rip-off, why rip-off "Twilight"? This film is neither scary nor romantic, it is just a painful bore-fest The only saving grace of this film is Gary Oldman, and that is only because his performance is so over-the-top that it is hilarious. This film… More
  Out of all the movies to rip-off, why rip-off "Twilight"? This film is neither scary nor romantic, it is just a painful bore-fest The only saving grace of this film is Gary Oldman, and that is only because his performance is so over-the-top that it is hilarious. This film makes"Twilight" look like "Casablanca" in comparison.

• E.J. B

  
  I don't think anyone had any expectations for Red Riding Hood, so I wouldn't consider it as disappointing as say Cowboys and Aliens, but it's still awful and puts director Catherine Hardwicke firmly on the path to becoming the female Stephen Sommers. Essentially, Red… More
  I don't think anyone had any expectations for Red Riding Hood, so I wouldn't consider it as disappointing as say Cowboys and Aliens, but it's still awful and puts director Catherine Hardwicke firmly on the path to becoming the female Stephen Sommers. Essentially, Red Riding Hood is a desperate attempt to update a fairy tale. And by update I mean the main character is a young, hot teenager involved in a love triangle between her and two equally attractive guys, and a werewolf who is given the Twilight treatment. And just to give this movie some credibility, they convinced Gary Oldman to take the paycheck (like who would refuse money) and play a werewolf hunter who is actually a crazy fanatic Christian. Whoever wrote this screenplay also ran into a problem in not having enough material to expand this short fairy tale into a feature film, so instead, almost half this movie becomes a witch trial and chase as Amanda Seyfried's protagonist is accused of being a witch. So amongst the horrible dialogue and clumsy plotting.... I'm just going to stop. The acting is awful, aside from Gary Oldman. Nobody recites their lines with any real understanding of what the scene's about. Of course, the dialogue is cliche and awkward, but it all lays down on the director. The sets look like a cheap music video, there are no scares, poor editing, a goth rock soundtrack that makes the film all that more awful. I'm rambling. As you can see, one of the worst films of 2011. Think of how many starving children could have been fed with the money wasted on producing this garbage. Life is cruel and unfair that way.

• Japes .

  
  This movie reminded me of Twilight. The acting was like Twilight, but the obsession with a boy was one of the main aspects of this movie that was just like Twilight. The girl had to choose between two boys the hot one and the rich one. It actually pretty much was Twilight except with… More
  This movie reminded me of Twilight. The acting was like Twilight, but the obsession with a boy was one of the main aspects of this movie that was just like Twilight. The girl had to choose between two boys the hot one and the rich one. It actually pretty much was Twilight except with a human vs. werewolf rather than vampire vs. werewolf. This movie lacked a lot of suspense....Was it supposed to be scaring? I'm pretty sure it was supposed to be a little scary, but it wasn't at all. I actually laughed at some parts because they were so stupid/hilarious. The movie was too obvious with its game of "guess who the werewolf is"! Anyone with a second grade education could've guessed who the werewolf was (if they tried). There was no suspense and no twist. This movie sucked because the plot is too similar to Twilight and the acting was so bad. The movie was poorly executed and there was no chemistry between any of the characters on set. There was no emotion in the movie. I didn't feel bad when the girl lost her brother, I didn't feel sad when the girl broke up with the boy...I felt a little bad when the girl stabbed that hot boy, but if he wasn't hot I wouldn't have cared.

• Martin S

  
  This could have been really bad. But it was allright. A interesting take on the old story. The directing, art directing and cinematography is looking good. It's pretty much Twilight. But they changed the vampires for a wolf. It was done with care.

• Sergio G

  
  A modern verison of the classic Perrault's tale. Now involving werewolves and romance story. The conceptual art involved sounded like a good idea, but after watching it, still a fairy tale no better than the original. The story becomes bored and the acting is overrrated.

• Sophie B

  
  After reading several bad reviews of this film I really didn't expect much. However I was pleasantly surprised to find a dark and intimate thriller that kept its secret hidden from me until the end. Being a film student, maybe I should have worked out who the wolf was and maybe… More
  After reading several bad reviews of this film I really didn't expect much. However I was pleasantly surprised to find a dark and intimate thriller that kept its secret hidden from me until the end. Being a film student, maybe I should have worked out who the wolf was and maybe that makes me stupid but I found it refreshing that it wasn't the most obvious person. Performance wise, it wasn't especially good however Seyfried held her own and as usual Oldman gave a brilliant performance. The stand out features were the set design, cinematography and music which really made this film despite the not as strong as possible story. I didn't think it was particularly teeny but I haven't seen Twilight though either so it remains to be judged.

• Film C

  
  well what a waste of time, even Gary Oldman who normally steals the show or even makes a terrible movie at least a little more bearable was rubbish in this movie, bitterly disappointing!

• Nate Z

  
  In risk-adverse Hollywood, everything old is new again, so why not remake classic fairy tales for a modern audience? After all, there's no rights fee. While we'll have to wait on the competing Snow White films until 2012, Twilight director Catherine Hardwicke unleashes her… More
  In risk-adverse Hollywood, everything old is new again, so why not remake classic fairy tales for a modern audience? After all, there's no rights fee. While we'll have to wait on the competing Snow White films until 2012, Twilight director Catherine Hardwicke unleashes her stylized retelling of the Red Riding Hood tale, titled easily enough, Red Riding Hood. This messy and incompetent movie may cause you to run away screaming into the woods all the way to grandmother's house. In a small village on the crest of the big bad words, Valerie (Amanda Seyfried) is betrothed to Henry (Max Irons), a hunky blacksmith that comes from a family of high standing. She's rather run away with Peter (Shiloh Fernandez), the town's resident moody guy who's also her childhood friend. Valerie's family is ostracized due to past indiscretions, so her grandmother (Julie Christie) lives in a cottage off in the woods. Valerie's mother died when she was young and she's been raised by her father (Billy Burke) and her step-mother (Virginia Madsen). This happy hamlet is gripped with fear after a series of violent wolf attacks. Father Solomon (Gary Oldman) ushers into town with a proclamation that he will find the wolf and slay it. But he clarifies that they are hunting for a werewolf among the townsfolk. During one attack, Valerie discovers that she has an odd telepathic link with the wolf, which makes her further question her identity. Naturally, this makes the town fear her and offer her as a red riding sacrifice. But who is the wolf and what is his or her plan with Valerie? This is a disaster of epic fairy tale proportions. Red Riding Hood attempts to reshape the oft told tale into a palatable mix of sex and violence for today's pre-teens (teenagers will surely be bored by this), somehow forgetting that the original tale is filled with macabre violence. The filmmakers have tried to make Red Riding Hood (RRH) hip to a younger generation; this ain't your granny's fairy tale, yo. But they've really turned the simple story into a lumbering, idiotic, grating, and nearly impenetrable movie. This youthful infusion of hollow artifice and misplaced attitude, as well as a fumbling attempt at ill-conceived edge, makes the movie a metaphorical bratty teenager. You get tired of its taxing nature and empty posturing. It's trying to be cool with last year's catalogue. Hardwicke is using every tool at her disposal to appeal to an easily bored teenage demographic, so the movie takes several sidesteps that are only justifiable because someone might think they are cool. The musical score includes grating, churning anachronistic electric guitars. It feels like your neighbors are throwing a party and the music occasionally drifts over. These visual and narrative flourishes only remind you how desperate and out-of-tune this whole lousy production is. Screenwriter David Johnson (Orphan) takes the familiar woodland frolic and turns it into the world's worst Agatha Christie-styled guessing game. The wolf is now a werewolf and then the town undergoes a witch-hunt that would make Arthur Miller wince ("I saw Goody Red with the wolf"). It's here that the movie preposterously attempts to become some sort of important statement on, I kid you not, the war on terror. Solomon brings a metal elephant that he sticks prisoners in to soften them up. He also lights a fire below the belly of the elephant to expedite the process of getting the truth out of a suspect. Solomon's status as a cleric has to serve as some sort of biting criticism of church authority, especially after he wants to get an inquisition going. I appreciate the wholly misguided attempt at topicality and commentary, but this was not the movie to make statements. Anyway, the plot is convoluted and every scene seems to just further dilute the clarity of the narrative. The movie just descends into a manic game of "Guess the Wolf." We literally go through just about every speaking part at some point as a potential werewolf suspect. That means every bit part is given due consideration, including the mentally handicapped child. I actively wanted the wolf to be the mentally handicapped kid just for the awkward discussions of what to do next ("We can't kill the wolf. He's... special."). Red Riding Hood works so hard to make like 8 characters look alternatingly guilty. The town seems to be populated by red herrings and not people. Red Riding Hood is a neutered horror movie and a rather bloodless romance; there's a lack of blood pumping with either. For a movie about a killer wolf there is precious little blood or wounds even considering some people are mauled to death. It seems the filmmakers had a choice of going with mild gore or mild sensuality to stick the PG-13 landing and erred on the side of hormones. The romantic elements are kept at a pre-teen simmer. For only they will blush at the more suggestive elements, including the table-dance-in-slow-mo shimmy dancing that the town seems to favor during their festivals. At one point Peter unties one of Valerie's bodice strands. To be fair, in mythical land/mythical time setting, that's probably like their equivalent of third base. The romantic triangle is desperate to ape the Twilight model, and the male characters are pinup pinheads. They occupy types, one being the brooding "darker" guy who Valerie really wants to be with, and the other is a nice guy from a proud family (sound familiar, Twi-hards?). The movie goes to shoddy lengths to keep these two at odds, when it appears that, like Bella Swan, our Valerie is one flower not worth the trouble of plucking. It's hard to get involved in a romance when you'd rather watch every participant getting eaten by a wolf. "What big eyes you have" is something of an understatement when speaking about the saucer-eyed Seyfried (Letters to Juliet). She gets to make good use of her ocular abilities, though who knows if it's acting or just expressions of disbelief about what kind of movie she is trapped inside. Seyfried does her whole blasé shtick, which makes the character feel more like an annoying know-it-all even when she admittedly knows nothing. Oldman (The Dark Knight) inhales scenery at a dangerous pace, acting ferociously over-the-top and unrestrained. It's like he's trying to channel a wolf in his performance. At least he's entertaining to watch, which cannot be said for the movie as a whole. Irons (Dorian Gray) is bland but Fernandez (Skateland) is laugh-out-loud awful at a few points. Clearly talking is not this guy's strong suit. Neither is emoting. The weirdest part of Red Riding Hood is merely seeing Madsen's face. Clearly this woman has undergone plastic surgery since her Oscar-nominated turn in 2004's Sideways. She almost resembles a gentler looking Mickey Rourke at certain unkind angles. Another famous face goes to sad lengths to alter her looks to be seen as acceptably good-looking in ageist Hollywood. Red Riding Hood is a tragic misjudgment on the part of just about everyone involved. The screenwriter thought he must have been making a serious allegory, Hardwicke thought she was making a wild and witchy cousin to Twilight, and the producers thought they were making a film that had genuine appeal. They were all categorically wrong. The reworking of the fairy tale elements is mostly mundane. She gets a red cloak from her granny but otherwise this story might as well just be about a girl and a werewolf. It's not an imaginative update or a clever reworking, this is just a dumb werewolf story with extra dashes of Twilight for seasoning. The key to unlocking the Red Riding Hood story is not by introducing a sterile love triangle. This hyperactive hodgepodge mistakes setting for atmosphere and a high number of characters for mystery. I was astounded as I sat and watched this movie; turn after turn it veers wildly in tone and execution. I haven't even talked about the special effects for the wolf, and there's a reason I am leaving that unsaid. Red Riding Hood is a movie 12-year-old girls might fawn over. If you find yourself outside that marginal demographic, then you'll likely find this movie to be an irritating, nonsensical, dopey, pitiful bore. You can stuff that in your picnic basket, Red. Nate's Grade: D

• Jan Marc M

  
  A distasteful mix of Twilight and The Village, Red Riding Hood is a complicated mess guilty of a grimly and uninspired interpretation of the popular folktale by Charles Perrault and Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm.

• Dean M

  
  Director Catherine Hardwicke was charged with re-imagining <i>Red Riding Hood</i>; not only did she shepherd the first adaptation of Stephenie Meyer's epic drivel to the screen, she also has used her talents as a production designer and filmmaker for good… More
  Director Catherine Hardwicke was charged with re-imagining <i>Red Riding Hood</i>; not only did she shepherd the first adaptation of Stephenie Meyer's epic drivel to the screen, she also has used her talents as a production designer and filmmaker for good (<i>Thirteen</i>). Hardwicke's chance to atone for her sins is, sadly, a missed opportunity. Wide-eyed, translucent star Amanda Seyfried slips ably into the red cape as village girl Valerie, torn between her rich, dullard fiance (Max Irons) and the hot and hunky peasant (Shiloh Fernandez). Simultaneously, the resident dastardly wolf returns to feast on the locals and reignite old superstitions among the townsfolk (who seem to be populated by extras from a Ye Olde Renaissance Fair). Steamy love triangles! Dark magic! Sexual intrigue! If only the movie made good on such inherently silly potential. <i>Red Riding Hood</i> gets off to a rocky start - do swooping crane shots of swooning lovers in the dappled forest remind you of anything? And never manages to recover. This is in spite of the relative delights of a sweaty town bacchanal being scored awkwardly by oddball techno genius Fever Ray, and the arrival of Gary Oldman as a witch-hunter priest with a taste for baiting werewolves and an even greater appetite for munching scenery. Oldman's presence - complete with cheesy Dracula accent and a mechanical interrogation elephant in which he likes to roast his suspects - threatens to elevate the movie into high Hammer camp. But the bargain screenplay downgrades the promising rites-of-sexual-passage myth into a dreary whodunit.

• Dead A

  
  The story seemed kinda messed up to me. Doesn't made any sense at a time.

• Cynthia S

  
  I have no idea why this movie didn't do better at the box office. It has a unique twist to an old fairy tale. I expected a teen flick, but was really surprised that it was alot more than that. Yes, it has some things in it that probably would make a teen swoon, but it definitely… More
  I have no idea why this movie didn't do better at the box office. It has a unique twist to an old fairy tale. I expected a teen flick, but was really surprised that it was alot more than that. Yes, it has some things in it that probably would make a teen swoon, but it definitely isn't cheezy, or over the top. Perfect casting and soundtrack. Nice job!

• Sanjaya &

  
  It's just okay, not saying it's a great movie but not accusing it as a bad one either.. For me, Catherine Hardwicke trying to doing another job by making another movie based on book, hoping that this one will surpass the popularity of 'Twilight'.. But what happen… More
  It's just okay, not saying it's a great movie but not accusing it as a bad one either.. For me, Catherine Hardwicke trying to doing another job by making another movie based on book, hoping that this one will surpass the popularity of 'Twilight'.. But what happen after I watch this movie for almost 2 hours is this movie has no difference than 'Twilight', probably a slight worser than 'Twilight' IMHO (Not forget to mention that I'm not a huge fan of 'Twilight' saga).. The story is weak, really weak.. They're trying to make a great story with a twist at the end, but instead they're just trying to accuse somebody for all the accidents that happen.. Although after watching half of this movie, I can slightly predict who is the suspect.. The cast actually really promising, having Amanda Seyfried as main cast while the supporting are Academy Awards nominated actress like Virginia Madsen and Julie Christie, or an A-class senior actors like Gary Oldman made this movie totally looks promising.. While the presence of Shiloh Fernandez or Max Irons probably just because of their appearance, especially because we never heard of em before.. Overall, it'a a movie with a promising cast but instead turns out to be an usual movie with (probably) a shocking twist at the end of the movie..

• Curtis L

  
  Pretty much twilight with red riding hood. Attractive cast, but I had the plot twist figured out from about fifteen minutes into the movie. Walka walka.

• ♥˩ƳИИ &

  
  Cast: Amanda Seyfried, Gary Oldman, Billy Burke, Shiloh Fernandez, Max Irons, Virginia Madsen, Lukas Haas, Julie Christie, Shauna Kain, Michael Hogan, Adrian Holmes, Cole Heppell, Christine Willes, Michael Shanks, Kacey Rohl Director: Catherine Hardwicke Summary: In this… More
  Cast: Amanda Seyfried, Gary Oldman, Billy Burke, Shiloh Fernandez, Max Irons, Virginia Madsen, Lukas Haas, Julie Christie, Shauna Kain, Michael Hogan, Adrian Holmes, Cole Heppell, Christine Willes, Michael Shanks, Kacey Rohl Director: Catherine Hardwicke Summary: In this horror-fantasy reimagining of the classic tale, young Valerie juggles a difficult romantic decision with feelings of fear and grief as her town is terrorized by a legendary werewolf, which has killed her sister and hungers to feast again. My Thoughts: "Many have stated the film has the same feel as 'Twilight'. I tried to go into the film not thinking about that, but that failed once I saw the opening scene. Very similar indeed to the 'Twilight' film. The forrest, the snow, the forbidden romance. The film even had Billy Burke playing the father to boot. Kinda ridiculous. I guess Catherine Hardwicke was still in the 'Twilight' frame of mind. The "idea" of the movie is good, but the outcome is, as others have commented, a complete utter mess. This is one of those films that could be remade and done better with the same idea but different script, director, and some of the actors could do with some replacing as well. I did like some of the ending when it got a bit interesting. But the film is so long for so little to be going on. It's quite boring. I wanted horror, I wanted gore, some suspense. What I got was a crap fest. But what is crap to me could be fabulous for you. Good luck with this mess."

• jay n

  
  Slow, dark reworking of the classic tale that makes little sense. Wastes many talented people although the casting of Amanda Seyfried and Virginia Madsen as mother and daughter is inspired, they really look like it could be so.

• Jim C

  
  Okay, first things first, this movie sucked. The acting from Seyfried and the others was so bad I wonder if they were trying to make it that way. The costume design was so cheap and bad I was wondering if they can't even afford to make good clothes. Music wasn't anything… More
  Okay, first things first, this movie sucked. The acting from Seyfried and the others was so bad I wonder if they were trying to make it that way. The costume design was so cheap and bad I was wondering if they can't even afford to make good clothes. Music wasn't anything really, just noise. But the worst part was the plot, not only was the movie boring, they changed the entire fable of Red Riding Hood, and not for the better. They claim this film to be a horror film, this was not scary, if anything it was funny because of how damn shitty it was. This is a worthless movie and I hate it. DON'T SEE THIS MOVIE!!!

• Phil H

  
  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… More
  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 a tall 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 alittle 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.

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