In this era of film, there seems to be a renaissance of the older star in popular film, be that, either bringing back iconic heroes from the 1980s like Indiana Jones, John McClane or Rambo, or actors with an already prolific career celebrating their old age. The adaptation of the DC comic book Red does exactly this, amassing an amazing cast of talent in a big Hollywood action flick.
The film begins with Frank Moses (Bruce Willis) a former black-ops CIA agent and he is RED: Retired and Extremely Dangerous. He now lives the quiet life, alone, living a life in the suburbs growing an avacado. In his loneliness, he talks on the phone with Sarah (Mary Lousie Parker), a customer service agent working for Frank’s pension office in Kanzas City. However when his house is stormed by a team of assassins, he is on the run and in the process kidnaps Sarah and brings her along for the ride. To get help, he enlists the help of his old comrades/enemies in the form of Joe (Morgan Freeman) who resides in a retirement home, Marvin (John Malkovich), a crazy paranoid conspiracy theorist who lives below ground, former Russian secret agent Ivan Simanov (Brian Cox) and Victoria (Helen Mirren) who lives in a mansion and takes the odd assassin gig whenever she can to fill the void of retirement.
Together they attempt to uncover the mystery of why they are targeted as well as fight off any armed forces that come their way.
This film is not meant to be taken seriously, if it was it would indeed be a very dull affair. Whilst i have not read the original comic, i am interested to see how much was retained on screen. The greatest thing about the film is the rather amazing cast collected in the film, all actors that have proven themselves in other roles and some of which has not been seen in a major release in years, such as the criminally underused James Remar of The Warriors, Richard Dreyfuss whom since his Spielberg/Oscar Winning days has slowly but surely disappeared into obscurity and he has some fun here and Ernest Borgnine, at the age of 93 cameos humourously as the CIA file clerk.
For the main cast they all act to their playful strengths. Bruce Willis IS this role, so its no special leap for him, he the tough guy with a dry kookiness, which is pretty much why we love Bruce Willis. Morgan Freeman has some fun being old and mischeivious, however could have done more. John Malkovich adds another notch to his legacy of unhinged characters, this time with the added element of a gun stuffed pig and being insanely terrified and wary of any form of surveillence as well as helicopters. Brian Cox slaps on a thick Russian accent and satires Russian agents, here also playful and actually kind of sweet. Finally Helen Mirren, who has been piling on the roles since her Oscar success in 2006 with The Queen finally has abit of solid hardcore fun, with her Victoria emiting her signature regality, an older womans sexy charm as well as the new element of full blown badass, obtaining the biggest guns and using them with conviction.
New Zealand actor Karl Urban, established in Lord Of The Rings and hot property since his excellent resurrection of Bones in Star Trek, plays the young CIA agent hot on Moses’ tail and holds the screen excellently and holds his own in a fights with Willis. Also Mary Lousie Parker, best known for Weeds brings a nice kooky average woman charm who’s wide eyed look adds to the humour.
The film is directed by Robert Schwentke, a german import to Hollywood who directed Flightplan and The Time Traveller’s Wife, and he really brings nothing particularly groundbreaking to the film, again without the actors, itd be a dull affair. The moments of pure absurdity are the best moments of the film, such as Malkovich playing baseball with a gun and the scene where he is covered in dynamite. It gives the film something interesting, in which most other scenes lack. With lesser stars it would probably not work at all.
In the end, its mostly entertaining, just seeing those actors have fun, but the other parts really show a weak film and in the end, its ultimately forgetful.
3/5
