So I totally had to fight Donovan for these tickets, needless to say I was dying to see this movie. When I saw the previews for this flick I was so excited because:

a) I LOVE when they take an old fairytale and do a cool update to it
b) The image of Red Riding Hood in her blood red cloak against the white mountain blew me away.

So let’s get to it.

The basic story of RRH is that there is a village in the olden tyme days that is haunted by a were wolf. Over the past 20 years they have figured out a way to keep him happy by sacrificing animals so that it wouldn’t kill any people. Well it’s the time of the blood moon which happens only once every 13 years, when a bite from a werewolf won’t kill you, but it will turn you. The village starts freaking because one of the girls was killed, in fact it was the sister of Valerie (who is Red Riding Hood in the story). The villagers get super angry and go off to kill the wolf, which in fact they do. Except that it was just a regular wolf and not the were wolf. A were hunter comes into town (Gary Oldman) and tells them this, and he also gives them the story of the blood moon. Now anyone who gets bitten must be killed right away.

So how does RRH come into this story, well the wolf actually speaks to Valerie telling her he wants her to go away with her. For some reason she can understand everything he’s saying. Now is when we try to figure out who the wolf is? Is it Peter the boy she loves, Henry the boy that loves her or is it in fact the grandmother who is a weird recluse in the village?

First I’ll give you the pros of this movie. It was SO pretty. Some of the shots were absolutely incredible. The guessing game of who the wolf is is also rather fun because you really don’t know, and when you do it’s surprising. Finally Amanda Seyfried who plays Valerie is incredible in the role as well. She’s innocent, yet brave. Sexual yet completely oblivious to that fact.

Sadly that’s all that’s good about the movie. Catherine Hardwicke (who directed the first Twilight) has absolutely no idea what she’s doing. I hated the fact that in this village from the middle ages, everyone was speaking as if it was 2011. Also (and this is my biggest pet peeve) they are wearing SO much makeup that it’s obvious, and hair gel and all that. It’s completely unbelievable. The actors, while they were pretty to look at, were awful on screen. Peter (Shiloh Fernandez) is SO gorgeous but in this movie he was terrible. Which surprised me because he was great in United States of Tara.

She killed another epic story, she did it with the first Twilight and now she did it with this. The actual story of the movie is great, it had so much potential and the way the included the “What big eyes/ears/teeth you have grandmother” was genius. But everything was bad, and I’m a little irritated with that. I can’t believe Hardwicke went from 13 which was a MASTERPIECE, to butchering two stories that would’ve been so easy to put onto the screen.

I’m sure if this movie had a different director it would’ve been great, sadly it did not. And we’re left with another really lame retelling of a classic fairy tale.

Movie Rating: 2 out of 5 stars

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