Red Movie Review
Red’s director, Robert Schwentke, needs to pat himself on the back for making a wholesomely entertaining movie whose script, despite having similarities with most spy thrillers released in the past decade, had ample to offer.
‘Red’ is also Bruce Willis’ first hit in quite some time, after lack-luster performances in ‘Cop Out’ and ‘Surrogates’. The success can probably be attributed to the fact that his role in Red is finally befitting of his age, unlike the other flicks.
The movie begins with Willis’ character, Frank Moses, a retired CIA agent, living a lonely life. His only entertainment comes from the telephone conversations he has with federal pension employee Sarah Ross (Mary-Louise Parker), which usually starts with the query for cheques.
The movie picks up after the first ten minutes.
The action kicks in as a team of government agents are sent to assassinate Moses at his house. After taking them out, he realizes that they also know about Sarah via phone tapping. He reaches Sarah, kidnaps her after failing to explain to her why her life is in danger and then seeks the help of former spies. These spies, also retired like him and unique in their own ways, try to help him find out why the government is intent at stubbing him.
The former spies include the rest of the cast for the film including Morgan Freeman, John Malkovich, Brian Cox, Helen Mirren and others. Malkovich will possibly affirm the beliefs of most paranoids through his performance of the spy, Marvin Boggs while Mirren’s action sequences is probably a nuance to the British spy movies of the eighties.
Moses also tries to outthink CIA operative William Cooper(Karl Urban), who is high on his tail. Despite being cool and calculative, Urban’s character constantly tries to seek the truth and motives behind the orders he is being given by his superiors.
Freeman’s performance would definitely make you want to browse online for his upcoming movies while Brian Cox reveals a new dimension to the character type, ‘Russian agent’. Louise-Parker just seems left out in the midst of these veterans.
While the script is nothing unique to the already released spy thrillers, the humour, even during the most pensive moments, and the action sequences, will definitely entertain. Although some sequences may just seem illogical, you would need to accept these as the movie is after all adapted from a graphic novel.
All in all, the movie is a good two hours of entertainment.