Red Ink (2000) User Reviews (3)

How NOT to make a movie "based on a true story"

[Seth_Rogue_One · 3/10 · 26 October 2015]

I'm gonna start by mentioning some of the positives about the movie, it's higher quality in terms of production value and acting when it comes to York Entertainment movies, who are (or at least were) notorious for releasing any shoe-string budget independent movie as long as it had some 'urban' theme or actors in it.

The never really bothered with the quality of the film and notorious for putting any cameoing rappers on the front-cover and pretending they are the lead and such, or just a random black guy in a all white movie they'd put him on the cover just to gain interest with urban movie fans.

This movie however does not have any rappers in it (perhaps that's why the acting is slightly better than the average) and the guy on the cover is actually the guy in the lead, for once.

Anyway, the actual movie which boasts about being 'based on a true story' has very little actual truth in it.

The real Atlanta murders were committed in 1979-1981 where as this movie takes place whenever it was filmed (guessing late 90's, the release years on York Entertainment movies aren't always that reliable as a lot of the movies they release are movies that other people didn't want to touch and have been shelved for a long while).

I can look aside that though, as you'd need a lot more money than the 100 000 dollar budget this movie had to pull off making a movie taking place in another time than the present.

But what I can't really look aside is that it strays so far away from the truth it's not even funny.

I'm not gonna spoil the plot but basically the script in terms of who did the killings and the motive is as if taken straight out of a 70's blaxplotation flick and even more bizarre.

You have to love the reasoning that our hero has about why the main suspect (who was black) couldn't be guilty in a early scene:

"You know the guy was set up, black men don't go around killing black kids, come on!".

Who can argue with that logic?

So then of course they make up a totally bogus story about him being set up and by who, so yeah very little truth in this 'true story' but even looking past that it's not particularly impressive film-making.

I could have considered giving it a 4/10 instead of 3/10 if they wouldn't had pushed the whole based on a true story thing so much and even named itself after the actual events of which it is known as: 'The Atlanta murders' as that will make people think that this is actually about... Well.. The Atlanta murders...

Terrible summary for a terrible film.

[prohibited-name-2636 · 1/10 · 1 July 2005]

This is a terrible film. It contains a base ignorance in how to tell a story on film. Bad actors sit around and talk, talk, talk, talk, about things that might have been important to see. All facets of this film: Directing, Writing, Editing, Acting must be given a failing grade. You could listen to this film on the radio and besides being confused and bored to death by the dialog you simply wouldn't miss a thing. The worst part of the film is the true story aspect. The filmmakers claim at the beginning to be telling a true story of child abduction and murder. They then fail to do so. It left me wondering if there is a real family and community out there that had to sit through the worst film of their lives only because they had strong attachments to a real crime.

What movie did they watch?

[alicespiral · 10/10 · 18 May 2008]

I just watched a DVD the day before yesterday called Atlanta Murders but here its called Red Ink.I know its the same one because I remembered the name Debbie Flowers-I mean what a Hell of a name that is!! I get DVDs for very little-sometimes for nothing-and any I don't like go the Age Concern because I do a lot for charity. This however is a keeper as its subject matter is pretty frightening stuff which smacks of the German and Japanese medical experiments of the 1930s and 1940s.. Its like the mad scientist syndrome here-a belief that by extracting fluid from the testicles speeds up the ageing process for the "patient" and slow it down for the ones who are innoculated Maybe thats why George Bush doesn't look his age! Anyway I usually like the True Story type and this I found quite adequate as it slowly builds up into not just unsolved murders but the reason why they're unsolved. Read between the lines and its a Government Cover Up!! And the reason? Because "George Bush doesn't like black people"!!! Yes this is frightening stuff when you realise the "operations" have probably been conducted without anaesthetic and the mind boggles when you also realise that this is the body's most sensitive area.The pain must have hit the threshold. This much IS true