RED review

Man.. I'm so bored.. Might as well write another note, my drawing first..

Maybe I can make pencil to look this clear.. gotta try it next time..

Okay I watched RED just on a wimp. No previous review or even hype for this movie, I only remembered it was starring Bruce Willis and caught a glimpse of the trailer. If you see RED, there is one thing that stands out, the cast. It has aforementioned Bruce Willis, Morgan Freeman and John Malkovich, so it got star power covered. You notice one similarity from the cast: they are all senior.

It turns out that RED stands for Retired. Extremely Dangerous in other words: Old But Still Bad-ass. This concept has striking resemblance with recent The Expendables. But unlike The Expendables which spams testosterone sausage fest, RED is actually more subtle and cares for story more, despite somewhat over-the-top scenes in some parts.

It follows the story of Moses (Willis), a retired CIA agent who have a crush on Sarah (Mary-Louise Parker, not sure who this is, I saw her at Red Dragon, I think). The film doesn't give any explanation at the beginning, but anyone who have seen comedy thriller of some sort will figure it out in no time. Thus the couple has to evade the chasing mafias, assassins and agents at the same time. Suspend your disbelief is a must.

Where is the young ones? It's sad action movie doesn't produce high caliber actor anymore..

Willis is funny, but still is a charismatic lead. I think he is better than Stallone, more capable actor. Willis has been in more diverse roles, and audience favor Willis more. The lead Sarah looks confused all the time, although her character states so, she isn't a good match to Willis. But as somewhat hot female hostage role, she will do.

John Malkovich plays Bogg who is a deranged paranoid and lives in the basement/nuclear bunker connected to a car trunk while a real house stands just a few feet on the side. He acts crazy and foolish, not Cyrus The Virus' crazy, more like Road Runner's crazy. His dialogues are sometimes silly, perhaps more than they are meant to. He provides some laugh worthy scenes though.

Helen Miller, who looks too much like Meryl Streep plays Victoria, the sniper and Brain Cox as Ivan, Russian mob, her long awaited soulmate. These two are kinda romantic. Victoria is somewhat eerie, she got the normal but disturbed look. It's the first time I've seen senior actress shot a machine gun before. Ivan has the gentleman flair and although it's awkward to see a suave character from what I expected to be a more grunt role, they are surprisingly a good match.

RED has plenty of ammo stock.

Morgan Freeman as Joe is a bit frail. Well the movie clearly says that he got cancer at the beginning, so it doesn't take a genius to know that he probably won't make it. Great performance though. Karl Urban as Cooper, the young agent also gives a solid performance. He already did Bourne Supremacy, LoTR, Chronicle of Riddick, Star Trek etc, so it's his forte in action movie. He is the only young star here, well young compare to the rest anyway.

The story flows nicely, never stall in one place too long and doesn't exactly rushes forward. The cast certainly helps and the funny dialogues, albeit there are some silly ones, will make you giggle. The stunts are irrational and hard to believe, like the fast car jump out or grenade lobbing, but they are appealing and entertaining. It doesn't has the huge amount of The Expendables stunts, but it surely has more focus and better sense of timing.

I wonder if Willis ever imagine he would do this scene when he played Die Hard...

So in the end, story and cast prevail upon macho festive. Although the action genre is a bit crowded lately and lacking of young blood, RED distinct unique traits make it more enjoyable than the more mindless iterations of action movie. Rate 7.5.