In the movie RED, four retired, ex-CIA agents find out that every agent that was involved on a mission they had done in the past, are now on a list to be assassinated. The main target on the list, Frank Moses (Bruce Willis) who was the agency’s best operative starts to discover a conspiracy and because he has been talking to a woman named Sarah Ross (Mary-Louis Parker), via phone, but has never met face to face, he ends up having to kidnap her in order to keep her safe, while trying to escape the operatives who are out to kill them. As Frank and Sarah are on the run, Frank must re-unite with his old partners to get their help in uncovering who is behind the list. Together again, they must all travel cross country on an impossible mission to break into the CIA’s top secret headquarters where they uncover one of the biggest conspiracies in government history.
This movie was packed with Academy Award Winners, Morgan Freeman, Helen Mirren, John Malkovich, and Richard Dreyfuss to name a few. The movie also had Karl Urban, who played William Cooper, the main operative assigned to kill Frank Moses. Then there was Ernest Borgnine, who played a record’s keeper for the CIA headquarters. Brian Cox played Ivan Simonov, who was also an ex-agent, who helped the team escape and talk to the right people to put the puzzle together as to who wanted them dead. Rebecca Pidgeon, played Cynthia Wilkes, the boss of William, who assigned him the duty of going after the re-tired agents. Rounding off the star-studded cast was Julian McMahon, and James Remar, who had small parts in the movie.
The movie was very entertaining, and funny. Most of the action scenes, which required physical action, were done by Willis and Urban in the movie. Helen Mirren played a sniper, so she didn’t have to do anything physical, but a couple of running scenes. John Malkovich, was really good as the slightly insane and paranoid agent, who knew how to stay one step ahead of the agencies tactical forces, mostly because he didn’t trust anyone, but he was also an expert in weapons. All in all I thought this was a really enjoyable movie, especially for an older audience. Not that it couldn’t be enjoyed by a younger crowd, just that with all of the star–studded older actors in the movie, gave the movie a nostalgic appeal. After the release of “Expendables†a couple of weeks ago, it’s good to see some of Hollywood’s older actors showing up in the action genre.
I gave this movie 2 ½ agents out of 4. It’s a well rounded action/comedy thriller, with a lot of star power in it. The movie runs 1 hour and 51mins. It’s rated PG-13 for intense sequences of action violence and brief strong language. It was written by Erich Hoeber, and Jon Hoeber. From source material from the comic book: “RED†by Cully Hamner and Warren Ellis. It was directed by Robert Schwentke. The film was produced by DC Entertainment, Di Bonaventura Pictures, Inc. It was distributed by Summit Entertainment, LLC.
Age is just a number. Ezo
Next week’s review: TBD
