Review: Red

Summit Entertainment

Red is one of those movies you really want to be good after seeing the trailer for it. Bruce Willis, John Malkovich, Morgan Freeman, and Helen Mirren is a killer cast. Following in the wake of the very disappointing The Expendables (my review here), one could only hope that another action movie with more older actors would be better. The choice to make it an action comedy was probably the best idea too.

It's certainly vastly different from 'Expendables' and although it may have a weak plot with a few weak characters, its light-hearted, PG-13 violence and action along with this familiar cast makes for a rather pleasant outing to the movies. Willis stars as Frank Moses, a retired CIA black-ops agent who is bored with life and calls the pension office just to talk to Sarah (Mary-Louise Parker). However, Moses soon finds himself under attack by 'wet squads' (assassin teams) and immediately knows something's up so he forcefully takes Sarah (because she's in danger too) along with him and sets out to uncover why people want to kill him. Of course, we're all just waiting for him to get the 'team' back together of fellow 'red' (Retired and Extremely Dangerous) operatives (enter Malkovich, Mirren, Freeman). 

Summit Entertainment

Director Robert Schwentke is definitely not the best of directors with work like The Time Traveler's Wife and the horrendous Flightplan, so it's no surprise that the plot isn't that great. It's the old "former agents know too much so we have to kill them" routine that gets beyond the cliches of government and rich bad guy behind everything. Like I said before, this is a very good thing because it would've been terrible as a more serious movie.

Sadly, Willis' character is really quite boring as he really sticks to the bored, retired, tired old guy persona. I wish we could've seen a little bit more of what he was as John McClane. Freeman is such a famous actor that he really doesn't have to try to hard, especially because his role isn't that important. It was rather fun to see Mirren blasting away with a .50 caliber machine gun and other artillery but even her character wasn't as filled out as I would've hoped her to be. Malkovich, however, is the best part of the movie. He basically reprises his role from Burn After Reading except much sillier and not serious. Any laughs you get out of this will most likely be from him and his antics. 

Summit Entertainment

Other than the main cast, we get even less in the way of personality and characters. Karl Urban, the CIA agent trying to track down the crew, isn't any thing special other than looking like an agent. Parker was probably the weakest part of the movie. Being the love interest for Willis and risk for the team since she has no spy/killing skills, you'd expect her to be a bit more interesting and do more. However, she does NOTHING. She's even worse than Cameron Diaz in Knight and Day. A hysteric, confused, wide-eyed woman who tags along with them, that's about all she does. I don't even know why they bothered having her in the movie.

I do think it's interesting how action comedies, especially those involving teams of stars, have made a serious come back as of late. 'Expendables', The Losers, The A-Team, and now 'Red' hearken back to the days of Leathal Weapon and those fun, 80's action movies. All these movies are driven by the star-power behind them in hopes to attract the largest audiences based on their favorite actors. Willis and crew are trying to appeal to the older crowd, naturally, and I don't think 'Red' will do very well with the teens and 20's crowd as they're all lining up for Jackass 3D. So will this targeted audience enjoy 'Red'?

I think they probably will for the most part, if not for the fact that it's an easily accessible family-action movie with not very much violence, language, and virtually no sexual material. So although it's not a very strong movie in all respects, it's the tone and Malkovich that will make this one do well, if at all.