With a cast consisting of Bruce Willis, John Malkovich, Morgan Freeman, Karl Urban, Mary-Louise Parker, Helen Mirren, and Richard Dreyfuss, you’d think this would be an amazing blockbuster. Instead, it’s just another graphic novel inspired bust. RED stands for Retired and Extremely Dangerous. Most of these actors are reaching their age limits for action films and you get a feeling like the Expendables where these old timers are doing things they shouldn’t be doing but they still got it on screen! I really wanted to like this film but it just fell short for me…it could’ve been so much more.
What happens to secret agents when their time is up? Well, just like everyone else, they retire. But can they really shake off that skill set they have? And what happens when their past comes back to haunt them? Well that’s what RED is all about. Inspired by a graphic novel of the same name, the film follows a group of highly skilled and dangerous retired agents who for some reason have been targeted for execution. The film begins with an attempt to kill Frank Moses (Bruce Willis) but it obviously fails or we wouldn’t have much a movie to watch. Instead of running away and hiding, he starts getting his old team together to get to the bottom of whatever is going on.
Bruce Willis and Mary-Louise Parker
At the same time, he links up with a phone operator that he has a crush on and has been chatting to for months (Remember, he’s retired and extremely bored). This is also where our love subplot enters. A lot of the comedy is sourced from this fish out of water aspect of the film. The phone operator, played by Mary-Louise Parker, is mixed in with all these violent gun fights and chases. I love Mary-Louise Parker from Weeds, but I didn’t enjoy her in this film at all. Her character was just too awkward for me. She has a lot of girl-time moments with Helen Mirren which are misplaced in an action film but add to the quirkiness of this movie. Jonh Malkovich’s character, however, was so over the top and extremely awkward…I loved it. I would probably watch this movie again just to see his scenes. That and Mogran Freeman in his blue suit.
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While watching RED, I actually gave up on the plot…I just didn’t care. The movie shows you the juxtaposition of boring real life to exciting spy life but we’ve seen many movies do that before. You learn why our retired agents are being targeted, realized it’s not someone you’d expect, and watch them try to get revenge and fix the problems. Really? I don’t think I could think of a more straightforward action movie. You can expect the typical action scenes and story lines to unfold. There are no surprises or anything special that separates this movie from any other. I doubt you’ll remember it in a couple months.
Big guns make Helen Mirren and John Malkovich smile
I compare this film very closely with The Losers which is another comic book action movie that fell short for me. While The Losers was funnier and more sexy than RED, RED had better action scenes and acting. However, they both were just enough to maybe warrant a rental. They would probably be more enjoyed if you stream them online or see them on cable. I just can’t understand how the movie could be “just ok” with such a stellar cast.
There are still plenty of advance screenings for RED and you can find them here.
The Expendables is Sylvester Stallone’s idea of going out with a bang. He admitted that he messed up with Rocky V so he made Rocky Balboa to end it right. That worked, so he thought he’d end off Rambo too…and that worked. So now he’s just greedy and going for the big finale with The Expendables…and when I say big, I mean big! This movie stars almost all of the top action heroes you can think of: Jason Statham, Jet Li, Dolph Lundgren, Eric Roberts, Randy Couture, Steve Austin, David Zayas, Terry Crews, Mikey Rourke, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Bruce Willis, and Sylvester Stallone himself. As you can see, this is a man’s man movie full of manly men. Testosterone to the max…no estrogen allowed…at least for the panel at Comic-Con. Terry Crews said that it’s the “Manliest movie ever made.”
Comic-Con is the leading comic book convention in the world. Over the years, it has become a platform for movie studios to debut exclusive information and footage from their upcoming films.
I’ve said this before but I love indie films and I love exposing smaller films to people even more…Solitary Man is a perfect example of this. As every week goes by, this movie is being added to more and more theaters in various cities…if you can find it, check it out, you won’t be disappointed. Typically a movie focuses on important events of the character’s lives. This movie, however, takes an interesting risk and tells the story of what happens after. To be more specific, Solitary Man is the aftermath of having a wild midlife crisis.
