RED Review

I honestly didn’t know what to expect from RED, the new movie from Robert Schwentke, whose previous work didn’t inspire much confidence. The only moderately enjoyable film he’s done to date was Flightplan, and even then it won’t make my all time top 100. I’ve read some reviews online which suggested it wasn’t very good, but you can’t always trust reviews. I went into this with lowered expectations and an open mind.

The premise of RED is pretty straightforward, and almost cliché. In case you’re wondering RED actually stands for Retired and Extremely Dangerous, which kind of gives away the main theme of this movie. A retired CIA agent gets forced back into action to defend his honour (and save his life) with the help of his OAP buddies. I’m not one to give spoilers out so I’ll leave it at that. Overall the story is pretty easy to follow, and there aren’t too many plot holes or complicated twists.

The movie was cast very well, with Bruce Willis taking the lead as the retired agent, who is like a down-to-earth James Bond, with a much better sense of humour. The film doesn’t make him reprise any throwbacks to his John McLane days, and this character is probably closer to Jimmy from the Whole Nine Yards. The supporting cast includes the excellent Mary-Louise Parker as his love interest, and his ex-CIA fellow retirees – Helen Mirren, John Malkovich and Morgan Freeman. They all play their part, but sadly don’t get enough screen time for my liking.   Malkovich is especially excellent, as the paranoid agent who’s spent the better part of his adult life taking government-issue LSD, without his knowledge.

The action is fast paced, the dialogue is witty and at time quite funny and overall it’s a pretty enjoyable film. However my biggest problem was that at no point did I feel like anything was going to happen to the main cast. Everyone was walking around seemingly invincible, and I still don’t buy that CIA and Secret Service can’t hit the target EVER, even if they are shooting at someone who’s well into their 60’s and doesn’t have the catlike reflexes (and flexibility) to dodge all the bullets.

For a movie based on a comic book, this is a very decent attempt, and I would recommend this for anyone after a no-brainer action movie with some good comedic moments thrown in for good measure. 

Rating: 3/5