R.E.D. is a movie I had been mildly looking forward to ever since receiving some promotional material about the movie sometime in 2009. The movie stars Bruce Willis, Morgan Freeman, John Malkovich, Helen Mirrin, and Mary-Louise Parker (for good measure). It’s an cast and an interesting action-comedy that features characters that are passed their prime. I gotta say i think this is a cool genre that emerged ever since Clint Eastwood started directing movies that featured older stars in lead roles. Aside from that, it’s also a tale of corrupt government and good ol fashioned spy action.
The movie follows Frank Moses, a harmless enough looking guy as he spends his time speaking and courting a customer service representative that he’d been speaking to on the phone for weeks, and therein lies the problem. You see Frank is a retired operative for the government and he happens to know a thing or two about a thing or two. It seems that agents in this situation, in this day and age, are a rare breed and as such are labeled “R.E.D.”, (Retired and Extremely Dangerous), and are kept under strict surveillance. The people surveiling Moses aren’t too keen on him making friends and take notice to his contact with the customer service rep. His house gets broken into by a team of assassins bent on taking out Moses but instead end of on the receiving end of punishment by Willis’ character who then seeks out his old black ops team for help to find out the source of the attempt on his life and to protect Sarah the customer service rep.
Hands down the things I enjoyed most about the film are the scenes of action. You have to detach yourself from some realms and semblances of believability to actually enjoy this film, but if that’s not a problem, then enjoy it you shall. I found the actions scenes to be over the top and beyond real with how just darned ‘cool’ these characters seem when doing the dirty work. It’s easy enough to accept Bruce Willis with a gun in his hand, he has one in every other movie he’s in but Morgan Freeman takes some convincing. Aside from that, the action is gripping and enjoyable for what it is as its usually mixed with some much appreciated humor that’s found in the interaction between the characters. Malkovich has a plethora of lines that capture gems of conspiracy theories and agenda-isms that, when used properly, can have one’s stomach hurting in laughter. I loved those.
The only way I can imagine one not enjoying the action is if they fail to detach themselves from believability. Seriously. The action can outright be a detriment too because then you’ll just be scratching your head and wondering how someone is able to pull off the feats displayed in front of you for a long time instead of absorbing the story or action in the subsequent scenes. Some of the ‘no-look killshots’ will definitely turn some away while inviting others to continue watching.
Overall i think the movie was decent. It wasn’t something that made me feel that I needed to see it in theaters, but moreso made me want to have this in my DVD collection as something to show off with my projector when I have company over to watch movies. The benefit of being able to pause, rewind, and replay some of those scenes to an audience are where I feel the need to shell out some cash. Bruce Willis was Bruce Willis in this film, and you can’t really fault a guy who made a career off of being Bruce Willis. Morgan Freeman’s part in this movie seems wasted. I really hoped they would use his character better and was a bit disapointed in the way things developed for him. Malkovich and Mirrin are gold and epitomize as well as compliment what I felt they were trying to convey in the movie. Nancy is Nancy Mary-Louise Parker is a nice familiar face to see in the movie, but I think she needs to take more time to deviate from the character she portrays on television as it wasn’t as appreciable here as it is there and was moreso a distraction because I expected Nancy’s annoying kids to show up and whack someone upside the head. Aside from that, she was serviceable in the role and wasnt too much of a distraction. I’ll (hopefully) be looking for this one as I do my christmas shopping this year!
