RED
Rating: 6/10
Cast: Bruce Willis, Mary Louise Parker, Helen Mirren, John Malkovich, Karl Urban, Morgan Freeman, Brian Cox, Ernest Borgnine
Director: Robert Schwentke
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 this year.
And that's where the problem arises for this film - there's nothing inherently wrong with it; Bruce Willis once again smirks his way through a film and does his action man schtick and the plot's somewhat similar to the likes of The Losers and The A Team from earlier in the year. You can't help but feel that in some form or another, you've seen this before.
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.
It's just I couldn't help but feel a sense of déjà vu from what's already been up on the big screen this year.
Watch the trailer for RED here.
