Nicholas LimRed appears to be just another action caper, but somehow manages to rise above its lot through its sense of fun (for the most part) and solid acting.
The movie centres around ex-spies who, despite having retired years ago, apparently still ‘have it’, and get together for ‘one last big job’. Think along the lines of The Expendables but with a distinct pensioner twist, and better thespians in the form of Helen Mirren (The Queen), John Malkovich (Being John Malkovich) and Morgan Freeman (Invictus).
Based on the DC Comics cult graphic novel series by Warren Ellis and Cully Hamner and directed by Robert Schwentke, Red opens with Frank Moses (Bruce Willis), an ex-CIA operative, and now member of the American Association of Retired Persons in every sense. Striped pyjamas and slippers? Check. Pillbox? Check. The retiree’s choice of car? You guessed it.
Frank’s sole pleasure in (retired) life is to phone-flirt with Sarah Ross (Mary-Louise Parker), who handles his pension claim checks. One night, a hit team infiltrates Frank’s house, ostensibly to try and kill him. After showing that he hasn’t lost his touch by finishing off the hit team, Frank travels to Kansas to kidnap Sarah to save her from being the next victim, due to her connections with him – sort of like what Tom Cruise does to Cameron Diaz, his lady love/reluctant sidekick, in Knight and Day.
To find out who are the ones after his life, Frank begins rounding up his old mates: Joe Matheson (Morgan Freeman), an 80-year-old with advanced stage liver cancer, Victoria Winslow (Helen Mirren), an MI6-operative who’s ‘the best at wetwork’ (killing people) and Marvin Boggs (John Malkovich), a conspiracy theorist and lunatic – a result of “daily doses of LSD for 11 years”. They form RED, or Retired, Extremely Dangerous, the movie’s title.
The movie moves along at a decent pace, with some surprise shootings and action scenes to spice things up. The sight of Mirren wielding a machine gun is definitely worth watching out for. Another one is Marvin blowing up an agent in response to an ‘old man’ taunt. “Old man, my a**” indeed.
Willis playing the lead comes as no surprise. After all the Die Hard star is practically synonymous with ‘old action hero’. He performs a solid job as does his supporting cast, not surprisingly since they’re made up of a fair number of Oscar winners and nominees. They don’t exactly have to deliver award-winning performances in this ensemble piece, but neither do they sleepwalk through their roles or appear bored with the proceedings. In fact, they play along nicely in a movie that doesn’t take itself too seriously.
Red treads the fine line between comedy and parody and elements of spy movies like loyalty, comradeship, being constantly on guard and death were presented in a jocular tone. There were a few chortles from the audience when the team had to choose a member to die, before toasting his death as a worthy sacrifice.
If there was 1 underwhelming aspect of the movie, it was the ending. Throwing together conspiracies, double-crossings and cover-ups made Red feel derivative, just like another confusing episode of 24 or Prison Break,which undermined its entertainment value.
Still, Red manages to be a entertaining flick for most of its running time, and makes for good cinematic escape with friends, or maybe your grandparents.
Movie: Red
Rating: ★★★✩✩
Opens: 4 November 2010
Duration: 111 minutes
Language: English
Rating: PG
Genre: Action Comedy
Director: Robert Schwentke
Cast: Bruce Willis, Morgan Freeman, John Malkovich, Helen Mirren, Karl Urban, Mary-Louise Parker, Brian Cox, Julian McMahon and Richard Dreyfuss