It’s better R.E.D. than dead for die-hard action star Bruce Willis, great dame Helen Mirren, professional wackadoo John Malkovich, cool customer Morgan Freeman and company. They are geezers with guns, classified “Retired — Extremely Dangerous,” and having a blast in today’s rowdy shoot-’em-up comedy based on the graphic novel by Warren Ellis and Cully Hamner. With over-the-top violence and tongues planted firmly in cheeky cheeks, “Red” overcomes its dispensable thriller narrative. How? It has the most glittering ensemble cast and most defiant attitude of any popcorn movie this year.
As the similarly subversive “Kick-Ass” empowered little girls earlier in 2010, this one does the same for “seasoned” citizens by arming them to the dentures. Social Security be darned. No creaky victims here when over-the-hill black ops agents go rogue against the corrupt government they once covertly served.
Very high United States officials, a CIA whippersnapper (Karl Urban), and an omnipotent defense contractor (Richard Dreyfuss) are colluding to cover up a nefarious past Central American mission. Our AARP-ready anti-heroes are targeted for assassination for what they know about it. But the bad guys aren’t prepared for how vicious — but still adorable! — old coots can be in order to survive.
Directed by Robert Schwentke and adapted by screenwriters Jon Hoeber and Erich Hoeber, a standard main plotline exists to provide framework, a forgettable justification to get “the gang” back together. But it is their individual subplots, the deprecating one-liners and sparkling chemistry among the A-list arthritics that make “Red” so freshly fun.
They were put out to pasture. Willis’ Frank Moses has gone numb from the lonely routine. Mirren’s Victoria only pretends that proper teatime beats precise sharpshooting. Freeman’s character has been languishing with terminal cancer. And a hilarious Malkovich’s drug-addled Marvin hasn’t had anything real to justify his psycho paranoia in ages.
But they come roaring back to life when threatened. Especially Frank. It forces the otherwise ferocious killer to get over his unexpected romantic shyness and hook up with his secret crush Sarah. In some of the most engaging scenes, this mild-mannered civilian (Mary-Louise Parker) gets drawn toward Frank and indoctrinated into the excitement of big adventure as the audience’s stand-in.
Meanwhile, that indomitable movie stealer Ms. Mirren makes superpower intrigue super-sexy when she reunites with her former Soviet boyfriend/counterspy (Brian Cox).
Elder love, elder brawling and elder supremacy beat elder care every time in the colorful “Red.”
