Red - Review

Seriously??? Its another team-up action movie trying to recapture the campy fun thrills of 80s action! Well, I guess they don't really bother me that much, I just think its kind of funny how 2010 has been the year of action teams, from The Losers, The A-Team, The Expendables, and now Red.

This action/comedy is very loosely based on a DC Comic about a group of former government agents who are forced out of retirement to complete a new mission. Leading the team is retired Black Ops CIA agent Frank Moses (Bruce Willis), living a quiet and lonely life. His only real enjoyment comes from his friendship with Sarah Ross, a young customer service representative from the pension office who craves adventure. After Moses is attacked by a hit squad, he and Sarah take off to get his old Black Ops back together and find out who is behind the attack. He is then joined by aging ladies man Joe Matheson (Morgan Freeman), the mentally unstable Marvin Boggs (John Malkovich), Russian agent Ivan Simanov (Brian Cox), and bad-ass M16 agent Victoria (Helen Mirren).

That cast is enough to catch anyone's attention. Unlike The Expendables, which consisted of veteran action stars, Red features a cast of versatile and mostly Oscar-nominated actors (though Bruce Willis is, of course, the film's main action star). With such seasoned acting veterans, you would expect nothing short of greatness, and for the most part that's true. Bruce Willis has been doing his shtick for almost 30 years now, and it's still really entertaining. Morgan Freeman is great as always too, pulling off the suave old man routine like one would expect. John Malkovich was great as well, doing the insane H.M. Murdock-type role, and looking like he was having a blast while doing it. The show stealer has to been Helen Mirren! Its not often that you see Oscar winning dames using a minigun in a comic book action movie... I think she probably had more fun than anyone. You also get good performances from Brian Cox as a Russian spy, Karl Urban as the CIA agent pursuing the team, and a decent cameo from Richard Dreyfus.

The action scenes are more or less what would expect, but there were a few stand out moments. I already mentioned Helen Mirren's chain gun scene, so I won't talk any more about that. There's also a memorable moment in a shootout with John Malkovich involving a pistol and a rocket launcher, but I won't say any more than. The action is entertaining, the cinematography is very well done, and the editing is quite slick. Not a whole lot to complain about on the action front... it should satisfy.

Of course, with the good does come the bad. As I mentioned, most of the cast pretty much rocks, but Sarah, the only younger member of the team, played by Mary Louise-Parker is easily the weakest actor in the movie. Her performance is awkward, predictable, and painfully unfunny. On top of that, her character contributed so little to the story, that you could have easily taken her out and the main plot would have suffered no loss whatsoever. I guess they felt the need to add in the obligatory action movie love interest... bummer.

The rest of the story is a bit of a mixed bag. The concept is clever and most of Red is able to stay interesting. Some of the jokes are pretty funny and the characters all contribute some good humor to the action-filled plot. Its hard not to love these characters, and you can see why actors of such caliber chose to take these parts. However, aside from a few moments for Karl Urban's CIA agent questioning where his loyalties should like, there's hardly any character development. The plot itself takes way too many predictable turns and a few holes prevent the story from being something truly special. Its not a horrible script, but without the great cast adding their own flair, I would have probably forgotten about it by now.

Overall, a (mostly) good cast and some fun action scenes make Red worth a watch. Its at least worth a matinee price... go check it out.

My Score: 3 out of 5!