RED: Blu Ray Review
RED
Released by Warner Bros
Rating: M
Call it The Grey Team.
Bruce Willis stars as retired former Black Ops CIA agent Frank
Moses, who's spending his retirement days in a big house and phone
flirting with pension worker Sarah (Mary Louise Parker).
One day and without warning, a hit squad breaks into his house and
attempts to assassinate him - after thwarting their attempts on his
life, Frank heads to Kansas to snatch Sarah from potential harm and
to try and work out who's trying to kill him; and perhaps more
importantly, why.
As the conspiracy begins to unwind, Moses ends up meeting up with
former colleagues Joe (Freeman), Marvin (a deadpan Malkovich) and
Victoria (Mirren) to try and establish what's going on.
But time's running out - and ruthless CIA Agent Cooper (a brilliant
Karl Urban) edges ever closer to tracking them down.
What can you say about RED?
Adapted from a DC Comics series, the film wears its colours on its
sleeve within the first 10 minutes as the hit squad goes through
countless bullets and destroys Moses' house in perhaps the most
explosive and destructive sequence committed to
celluloid.
Yet, there's some things to really love about RED - principally,
the wonderful performance of Karl Urban, who has grit,
determination, steely cool and effortless screen presence; Mary
Louise Parker who is long overdue a lead; Helen Mirren with a
really big gun (finally putting to bed her image as an English
stage dame) and John Malkovich for just out-performing most on the
screen. There's also a very cool scene where Bruce jumps out of a
spiralling cop car with all guns blazing which is true to the comic
book world the film inhabits.
But these are some highs which are balanced by some lows - the plot
sags after a while and you may struggle to be as emotionally
invested in it as perhaps you should be. However, if you love guns,
explosions and a slightly off-the-wall tongue in cheek kind of
action film, you'll be happy.
Extras: Audio commentary, deleted scenes,
insights, Trivia track
Rating: 6/10
