I went and saw the movie Red today here in Tahlequah. Red is an action movie starring Bruce Willis, Mary-Louise Parker, John Malkovich, Morgan Freeman, and Helen Mirren about a group of retired secret agents who are targeted by an unknown force for assassination. Of course, the movie's plot centers around this group coming together and trying to find out who is after them, with plenty of shootouts and explosions along the way.
First of all, this movie has one of the most distinguished casts of any action movie I've ever seen. Willis, Malkovich, Freeman, and Mirren have all had amazingly succesful careers and Parker has been great on her hit tv show Weeds.
Another good thing about this movie is the action itself. It's good, fresh, and not at all realistic, which, although it sounds negative, actually turns out to be a positive because it goes along with the light, somewhat goofy mood of the film.
Like most comic book adaptations, very little is going on beneath the surface in this film. It is mostly just a straightforward action/adventure story. There is a sort of nostaglic, "nothing like the good ol' days" sense in the movie, but too often it's only brought to your attention when the characters mention it directly, which comes off to me as a bit lazy.
However, the movie does have it's witty parts, such as when Malkovich, who is great as the wacky, paranoid member of the group, responds to Parker's comment about paper cuts being more normal than gunshot wounds with "I usually get shot."
Older viewers I think will especially like this movie because they will more readily be able to identify with the motives and feelings (as shallow as they sometimes are) of the characters in the movie. All of the actors playing the good guys are older (Parker is the only one who hasn't hit the big 5-0.), but they're all very dynamic and interesting. That said,y oung people will still go see this for the action, which is worthy in and of itself.
All in all, I really enjoyed Red which is a very functional action-packed, occasionally laugh-inducing movie because of its top notch action special effects and its stellar cast (which includes a few great scenes with the classic Ernest Borgnine and Richard Dreyfuss). For all these reasons, I give Red 2 1/2 stars out of 4.
