Red State is a film that is totally ridiculous, but darkly humorous and entertaining enough to let you partially forgive its many flaws, at least during its running time.

The setup is three teenage boys (who are idiots also, let’s be clear) go off to meet an older woman, via the internet, for some non-family fun. Soon they find themselves the ambushed victims of abduction and all sorts of nastiness at the hands of Five Points Trinity Church, led by Abin Cooper (a very very thinly veiled analogue for Fred Phelps and the Westboro Baptist Church). However, it turns out these guys are carrying guns and explosives in addition to placards.

There’s a lot to like about Red State, the usual Kevin Smith dialogue has some humorous moments and John Goodman, who turns up later as an firearms agent, is as good as ever. The chase scene through the house is also a great kinetic sequence, with some excellent classic Mean Streets inspired SnorriCam shots. However, the ridiculous exaggeration of the film is also what lets it down.

Red State really does beat you around the head with its message. The early scene where the teacher explains to her class (who already agree with her, incidentally) exactly why folk like Five Points are so dreadful is so poorly and obviously played out it was cringing. Religious fanatics are a dangerous, disgusting and often hypocritical bunch. Yeah, thanks for that Kev – we knew that. In some ways, it is a little depressing that to poke fun at the hypocrisy and, I’ll say it, complete f***ing idiocy of these people he needs to give them AK-47s and Glocks. On top of this, the film then decides to have a go at the US government. I don’t really have a problem with this per sé, but Smith again does it in a completely unsubtle manner. Unfortunately, for all the humorous moments in the script, it seems too much like one written by an angry internet rantsman (ahem…what?) which was polished by Kevin Smith. Or the other way around, it doesn’t really matter. Some over the top performances, with two notable exceptions, only serve to keep the beating coming. Despite my affection for Goodman’s turn, special mention should go to Michael Parks on the acting front as the crazed preacher Abin Cooper. He dominates any scene in which he appears, his opening speech easily holding your attention for an extended period.

Red State has plenty to endear itself to the viewer, but it ends up bludgeoning its audience with the message, which is rather obvious to begin with. If you want a genuinely funny and engrossing satire of religion, then you don’t even have to go that far. Smith already did it with Dogma…