Review of Redacted (2007) by Carlton H — 30 Mar 2008

I'm a fan of a movies based off real events, and I'm equally a fan of movies that are so down-to-earth that someone could tell you that it was a true story, and you just might believe them. I even found the Blair Witch Project compelling in its time. Redacted shoots to emulate such aspects and bring you a "true" story, but blatantly misses the target outright.

If you're going to make a movie that has a "real" feel, the cinematography has to do so as well. The picture quality here is too good and the camera angles too carefully orchestrated to give it that "home-video" feel. The camera gets a little shaky during action, and they only use one camera to film each scene, but it's simply not enough. ... Secondly, the acting in these types of movies is very important. The acting has to be believable. In Redacted, the acting is so bombastic, so over-the-top that it's just ludicrous, something I blame more on the director, De Palma, then on the actors (although I get the feeling that the actors aren't that good anyway). ... Lastly, the story is told is such a blatantly biased manner that it destroys any illusion of reality that may permeate despite the other faults of the film. The thing about using a movie to prove a point is that it should be subtle; the audience should feel the point without seeing it - it should be communicated in a way that the audience almost doesn't know that the writer wanted the point to be made. Redacted is just the opposite. Mind you, I'm very anti-war, but this movie was just ridiculously so. I get the point, I even agree with many of them, but it can't be thrown in our faces in such a blatant way and expect to be a good movie.

Worst movie I've seen in a least a year, probably two.