Red (by Brogan)

Yet another in our 2010 string of team-up action movies, Red bursts out with a coming-out-of-retirement style story. Following movies such as The Losers, The A-Team, and The Expendables (none of which I have seen, mind you) this film takes a very similar structure and tone (but that “the” at the beginning of the title). Red has a well-known cast including Bruce Willis, Morgan Freeman, Helen Mirren, Mary-Louise Parker, Karl Urban, and of course, the always great Mister John Malkovich, and is directed by Robert Schwetke.

         

Bruce Willis plays retired CIA Black-Ops agent Frank Moses, who is ordered killed but unsure by whom or why that is done so. Moses then has to take his (obvious) love interest of the film (played by Mary-Louise Parker) cross-country to his former partners (Freeman, Malkovich, and Mirren) in order to acquire help solving the mystery of who wants them all dead.  This is happening along with the CIA and their wet-works agent (Karl Urban) tailing them and never passing up an opportunity for some action.

         

The action in Red is satisfying. There is not a whole lot of “shaky-cam” or many rapid cuts in here to diminish your enjoyment of the film. Special effects in this movie are never heavily relied upon; they don’t look all that bad either. The dialogue is quite clever and humorous, but the plot is really predictable. Although, I felt that didn’t really matter at all since I found the characters so likeable that I just wanted to know what was going to happen to each of them.

Now, I’m not exactly how Red stacks up to the similarly styled films. Like I said before, I never saw any of the other action films that had a team of several guys going to take out the bad guys. So as far as I know, this is the best one yet. I’m going to hold out on considering that statement the truth of my opinion until actually see those other films. All I can tell you though, is that Red is a blast. If you really want to see an action movie with great characters and well-done action, it’s as simple as this: see Red.

If you’re looking for an amazingly deep and well-written fiction, Red isn’t your picture. But if you enjoy fun, comical, and action thrill-ride – and haven’t had your fill yet this year – I recommend this one. I give it 85/100 points.