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Retirement is a joy for most. It’s something the common person looks forward to, plans for and usually loves every minute of. Imagine doing nothing all day long. Absolutely nothing. What could possibly be dull about that? RED, directed by Robert Schwentke (Flightplan and The Time Traveler’s Wife), explores the subject with the same amount of joy as those who experience it have, yet pulls ‘Extremely Dangerous’ out of its comical bag of tricks to give the idea of ‘Retirement’ a refreshingly original and unusually feisty cinematic spin.
Inspired by the graphic novel of the same name written by Warren Ellis and artist Cully Hamner, RED – if you’ve seen the hysterically over-the-top trailer featuring Academy Award winner Helen Mirren toting, rather brilliantly, a machine gun – is exactly what it proclaims to be: lighthearted, action-heavy, and full of madcap fun. It’s just this side of anarchy – maybe playing it a bit too safe at times – but an honest step in the right direction as the cinematic year begins to wind itself down. Equal parts The A-Team and The Losers with a healthy dose of age and muscle ala The Expendables thrown in, RED doesn’t disappoint in its mischievous tone, which is certainly a tip of the hat to its director for maintaining control of the story.
RED features a series of brazenly sharp and pitch-perfect performances from its cast. Bruce Willis, looking remarkably better than he has in years, is certainly comfortable wearing the vintage blues of a lonely Frank Moses, a former Black-ops maestro who finds his heartstrings plucked by the quirky nature of Sarah (Mary-Louise Parker), a benefits pension worker he flirts with – all PG and shy-like - over the phone. Anything to keep him waking up to face the day, right? Parker’s wide-eyed charm throughout the picture is a perfect foil for Willis’ cool-as-a-cucumber (even if an avocado is more appropriate here) approach to the hellfire surrounding him…and eventually her (as she unknowingly becomes more and more involved in the type of espionage romances she used to only read about).
Turns out a whole bunch of important somebody’s in the CIA – with all leads pointing toward Richard Dreyfuss (hamming it up in the role of villain a bit too much) - want Frank and his retired co-operatives 100% dead because of information they know surrounding the Vice President. Their targets are nursing-home native Joe (Morgan Freeman), paranoid conspiracy theorist Marvin (John Malkovich who nearly steals the picture with his childlike paranoia), the Russian bear of an agent turned companion Ivan (Brian Cox) and classy – especially with an automatic weapon - Victoria (Helen Mirren). This cast is exceptional and they know exactly how to play to the camera with a bubbly charm that is both stealthy and hilarious.
CIA operative Cooper (Karl Urban) has been assigned to find Frank and “bring him in”, yet he doesn’t quite understand why. Nor does he bother to ask. His “I-Can-Do-It” attitude in finding Frank and his cohorts is chilling, more so after he gets some deadly inside information from records keeper Ernest Borgnine. His cat-and-mouse chase comes to a well-boiled head during a rollicking office fight scene that is as violent as it is brutally clever; a close-quarters fight scene that won’t give you a headache with its overuse of the “shaky” camera. And when Aerosmith’s “Back in the Saddle” kicks in with dynamic energy, matching the on-screen brawl, it’ll be hard to keep that smile from forming.
Screenwriters Jon and Erich Hoeber expand on the world of the graphic novel, but don’t lose the anarchic spirit or sense of “fun” that the movie develops. Nor does its director, whose filmography suggests otherwise, lose control or focus of the on-screen action. While RED is over-the-top in some circumstances, the film plays it safe with the amount of gore and violence it displays, which makes that office scene so memorable. It also seems to run a bit out of steam plot-wise towards the end as Dreyfuss chomps his Scooby Doo villain-like scenery, but the cast covers for that shortcoming well enough to make this film nothing less than a genuine crowd pleaser.
RED, with its clever “postcard” transitions and lively cast, remains centered as a cheeky action flick with a killer sense of humor. It definitely won’t leave you seeing…ehem…red.
MPAA Rating: PG-13 for intense sequences of action violence and brief strong language.
