RED

Action/Comedy | rated PG-13 (V) | starring Bruce Willis, Mary Louise Parker, John Malcovich, Morgan Freeman, Karl Urban, Helen Mirren, Brian Cox, Richard Dryfuss | 1:51 mins

Retired CIA black-ops agent Frank Mosses’ (Bruce Willis) life attempting normalcy includes growing an avocado in a jar and flirting with the government employee (Mary Louise Parker) who sends his retirement checks until the day a squad of hired CIA hitmen invade his home and try to take him out. Soon he and his phone pen pal Sarah are on the run across the country while Frank assembles the old team, including Joe (Morgan Freemen) trapped in a retirement village, excessively paranoid Marvin (John Malcovich) and demure assassin Victoria (Helen Mirren),  and tries to get to the bottom of why the CIA wants them all dead.

Once, many years ago, I read a blurb quote for something I can’t remember boasting that the movie contained therein had “hilarious action”. I remember thinking, what the hell is hilarious action? What kind of pay-for-play hack critic wrote that? But that exact phrase came to mind as I chuckled all through the outrageous action scenes pulled off by the geriatric characters of RED. Bruce Willis (though I still don’t think of him as old) walking right into the office of the CIA agent coming after him and tearing the place apart in a fight, or John Malcovich (perfectly insane) swinging an empty rifle like a bat and swatting a grenade back at an assassin.

The Red in this case isn’t a cold war spy thriller about the communist threat starring Dolph Lundgren, but “Retired, Extremely Dangerous”. Between this and The Bucket List overly cute titles seem to follow Morgan Freeman around. With many of the special effects clearly CGI and the brewing romantic subplot between Willis and Parker making the damsel-by-the-heroe’s-side subplot work for it where very few movies can, Red is a in a lot of ways what the bright, CGI, action/comedy Knight and Day (and to a smaller extend The A-Team) tried to be earlier this year with less success. With so few getting this balance right, Red hits both the action and the comedy on the head with equal measure.

Despite what the loaded-for-bear and entirely terrific all-star ensemble cast might suggest, this is pretty much Willis’ movie. Director Robert Schwentke (The Time Traveller’s Wife) smartly keeps the aces close to his sleeve, unfolding each new member of the cast one at a time as needed. Red has surprises around every corner, be it a new cast member, a joke, a cameo (Richard Dryfuss seems stuck in a Dick Cheney impression) or a superhuman feat of strength or cunning by the old-timers as they again and again get one over on the young, hot shot with nicely groomed hair (Karl Urban, very much in the Colin Farrell role from Minority Report, but giving it an arch villain gruffness).

Based on a DC Comic, everything in Red is ampted up to absurd comic book proportions with plenty of slow-motion bullets. For those willing to go along for the ride it couldn’t be more fun. I can honestly say I never thought I’d see Helen Mirren as a sniper rifle-totting, tourret-gun-operating assassin.

The story gets pretty convoluted, but RED remains confident. An exciting, smooth and fluid and endlessly creative movie that doesn’t turn off it’s brain or imagination when the time for shoot-outs and fight scenes come. One of the more purely entertaining genre offerings of the year.