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RED (2010) (**)

Check Out the Trailer

Bruce Willis plays a retired black ops agent who develops a crush on the telephone operator (played by Mary-Louise Parker) that manages his government pension. It's a cute little set up for a romantic spy thriller. He devises an excuse to be in her hometown so they can meet. The only problem is that there are people out to kill him and they come along for the trip. I really liked this part of the film. Now that we got that out of the way, we'll talk about the rest of the film.

Willis plays Frank Moses, who is labeled R.E.D., which stands for Retired: Extremely Dangerous. He knows things that others, like gun smuggler Alexander Dunning (Richard Dreyfuss, JAWS), don't want getting out. He has connections with the government, which sends young agents like William Cooper (Karl Urban, LORD OF THE RINGS) with their high tech ways after the old codger. The new guys don't stand a chance.

Like any bored retired person, Frank decides to bring the old band back together. These musicians don't play axes they wield them. Marvin Boggs (John Malkovich, DANGEROUS LIAISON) is now a survivalist living in a bunker in the swamp, paranoid that everyone around him is a spy trying to kill him. Victoria (Helen Mirren, THE QUEEN) has taken up flower arrangement as a hobby. You can tell she's just itching to shoot somebody. Ivan Simanov (Brian Cox, 25TH HOUR) is a Russian double agent whose lover shot him in the stomach and left him for dead. Joe Matheson (Morgan Freeman, INVICTUS) is the classy black agent.

Director Robert Schwentke (FLIGHTPLAN) reminds us with every action sequence that this was based on a comic book. They are cartoonish. The sweet set-up between Willis and Parker could have been a classic like CHARADE, but once the assassins descend on Frank's house the film goes into overkill. Is this the gunfight supposed to be a condemnation of the 911 system in America? Men in dressed in black with machineguns stand in a suburban street firing at a house until it is literally falling apart for an extended period of time and the cops never show up? Maybe Frank's neighbors like to keep to themselves.

Each one these action sequences where the old farts are like Terminators just diminishes the believability of the entire story one notch more. The only enjoyment for a while is Parker's Sarah completely frightened by the man she mistakenly flirted with over the phone. This could have made for a great dynamic over the course of the film, but it's abandoned for the less plausible turn of her wanting to play spy games with the older kids.

With all this gunplay you'd think this would raise the pulse a bit, but the worst offense is that it's all so boring. The heroes are gods toying with mortals. A sequence where they invade CIA headquarters is laughably over-the-top. In the BOURNE films, we love the superior skilled Jason getting in and out of impossible situations by outwitting his adversaries at every step, because his skills are in his mind. Frank and the team bring bazookas. That takes all the fun out of it.

Rick DeMott's picture

Rick DeMott
Animation World Network
Creator of Rick's Flicks Picks