RED RIDING HOOD

Red Riding Hood is a 2011 "horror" flick that's supposed to be loosely based on the children's fable Little Red Riding Hood. The film stars Amanda Seyfried in the title role. In the film, Red's old-timey village is being terrorized by a werewolf. So the villagers enlist the help of this fanatical werewolf hunter played by Gary Oldman. (I was actually kind of surprised to see Oldman in a movie such as this. Perhaps he needed a quick paycheck?) Oldman's character is also a sadistic religious whack-job (but then, aren't they all in these type of films?). For instance, in one particularly harrowing scene, he tortures a young boy who's clearly mentally-challenged to the point he can hardly speak. But, because he's "different" from the other villagers, he gets targeted and interrogated by Gary's sadistic character and, when he can't give him the name of the wolf, he tortures him by throwing him in this nasty little torture device called The Elephant that ends up killing him (you can, of course, watch the film to see what I'm talking about). Nice! Anyway, Seyfried's Red has two love-interests in this flick (of course!). One is a good guy whom her family wants her to marry and the other is a stereotypical bad boy (again, of course!). And guess WHICH one Red goes for? (Hint: it's NOT the good guy!) This film is marred by occasional overacting and even bad acting at times not to mention the special effects are ofttimes cheesy. Also, some of the clothing worn by some of the villagers looks more "modern" than others (I'm not sure what time period exactly this flick is supposed to be set in). Which is kind of surprising given that this film stars Seyfried and Oldman and was even produced by none other than Leonardo DiCaprio (of Titanic fame). So it probably goes without saying that Red Riding Hood is by no means a great film, although I would call it passable. It would certainly do on a slow night when there's nothing else "good" on TV. Plus the fact that Amanda Seyfried (who starred in the previously-reviewed sex-fest Chloe) makes about the sexiest Red Riding Hood I've ever seen (which, of course, is the primary reason I initially wanted to see it!)! And, yes, there's even a dream sequence where Red and her Grandma in the film say the lines about "What big eyes you have, Grandma!" and "All the better to see you with, my dear!" from the fairy tale which I thought was more than a little lame. Oh well! Again, at least Amanda Seyfried looked HOT as always! Oh yeah, in spite of its title, Red Riding Hood doesn't do any actual riding in the flick (well, except for the bad boy she's into, which, of course, WASN'T in the original fairy tale!)!