This one knocked me for a loop. I really didn't expect much and I wouldn't put Amanda Seyfried in my list of top 200 actresses.

What
little I heard about "Red Riding Hood" has been mostly negative plus
the fact I'm not into the whole werewolf/Twilight (except for "True
Blood") which generally comes along with violence, not one of my
favorite movie aspects.

Oh this isn't a
film for the ages and/or to ever see again but while watching it you
enjoy yourself whether you want to see how closely it follows the old
fairy tale, and it does to a certain extent, even getting in the "What
big eyes you have Grandma," and how it goes astray, which it certainly
does. There are a few unexpected, at least to me, family relationships.

In a film like this acting isn't the key as much as directing and photography. Catherine Hardwicke,
who directed the first "Twilight" film has a thing for high shots and
certainly makes them as Red Riding hood, called Valeria, runs through
the snowing with her red cape growing longer each time though I don't
know if it was meant to or was just for effect. The photography in the
Canadian Rockies offers so beautiful shots and the handling of the
werewolf isn't too shabby.

I did like Amanda Seyfried in HBOs  "Big Love" but on the big screen she is all eyes, pale skin and vapid. I have seen her in "Mamma Mia", "Dear John", "Letters to Juliet" and now in "Red Riding Hood" and I keep on hoping to see an actress improve.

Dark
haired, handsome Shiloh Fernandez vies with light haired, handsome Max
Irons for Valerie, both doing the 'pretty boy' roles that most yong actors have to go through. Gary Oldman does 'ham' along with the handful of pros who can do it and make you interested in watching them do their thing. Virginia Madsen is Valerie's mother and Billy Burke her father, both with secrets and
Julie Christie is her grandmother with something always cooking in the
kettle.

This is not a picture you will remember, except for the long, red cape against the snow, but the 100 minutes doesn't drag and, as I said, I wasn't expecting much but got more than that!