RED (movie, review)

[elfs]

A friend and I went to see RED, a silly little comic book movie starring Bruce Willis and Helen Mirren (as well as Morgan Freeman and John Malkovich) as retired government agents who find themselves the subject of assassination teams. Teaming back up, they fight back.

All very standard.

The battle scene at the airport is so far more over the top than other fight scenes that it stands out for inappropriate levels of silliness. It weakens the rest of the story, which is fun, the cast is obviously having a blast being kick-ass in middle-age (although Willis at 55 is playing a character who's 66, and the difference is striking). Mirren plays a weapons expert and watching the queen grab a .50cal and pound away at the president's limo, it's obvious that she's having too much fun escaping the dreary, serious roles she usually plays. Willis's opening fight scene, one old guy against six black-clad and heavily-armed soldiers, is much fun, as is the final caper. Karl Urban (who I last saw playing an awesome Bones in the JJ Abrams Star Trek reboot-- best casting decision in that entire damned film, and that includes hiring Leonard Nimoy to play Spock!) does great work as a CIA field agent and assassin. Even Ernest Borgnine looks happy to be in front of the camera once more as he explains that "RED" stands for "Retired, Extremely Dangerous."

Still, it doesn't hold together as well as it should. At times it feels like they're trying to deadpan funny an action-adventure, at others its closer to a Hellboy-like comic book. Plot holes big enough to drive a starship through come and go with regularity. The plot itself ticks along, but the feel of the film seems to have passed from editor to editor without someone to impose full coherence.

Thankfully, the film avoids many of the cinematographic trends that make movies look terrible these days. There's no ramping in this film (attention, Hollywood: Only Chris Nolan is allowed to ramp, ever again), color correction is more true than false, there's no 3D and no attempt at documentary moments. This is pure old-school action-adventure, and if you like that sort of thing, RED is the sort of thing you will like.

Comments

[pixel39.livejournal.com]

gunfights
explosions
Karl Urban

That's three of the list of required movie-watching criteria (any movie must have at least two), so we'll be going (although renting might be safer given the experience with The Expendables).

[elfs.livejournal.com]

A few reviews I've seen have said that RED is a good cure for what ailed The Expendables. I'm sorry I missed the latter, but apparently everyone hated it. Pity, that; it could have been fun. I'm still waiting for The A-Team to show up in the local Redbox.

[areitu.livejournal.com]

Those reviews are right about RED being a cure. The first thing I thought when I left the theater was, "This was the movie I thought The Expendables was supposed to be."

I watched The Expendables with Commando (1985) in mind, as the benchmark for a "rescue the girl and blow stuff up" action movie. Despite the all-star action hero cast, the action scenes were as dry and flat as the dialogue, the fights had could have had better choreography and the plot holes are bigger than the actors' egos. There was a lack of witty banter, puns or one liners, with the exception of one scene.

It felt like they had a list of elements that exist in a classic action movie, and tried too hard to structure the movie around ticking off each item in sequence.

[elfs.livejournal.com]

Commando is especially fun for the continuity goofs, such as the infamous "self-healing sandwich" and "Arnie's magical color-changing speedo."

[pixel39.livejournal.com]

I actually enjoyed The Expendables, but that is probably because my movie-watching of the the last few years starts out with absolutely no expectations except fulfillment of the requirements criteria. ;-)

The problems we had with it were totally unrelated to anyone's acting or lack thereof, and completely because the scenery in combination with the paramilitary stuff triggered flashbacks for the person I was watching it with.

[areitu.livejournal.com]

There's one scene in the movie does ramp, when Bruce Willis steps out of the spinning police car. I didn't know Earnest Borgnine was still acting until I saw this movie! The last movie I remember seeing him in was Laser Mission (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0099978/), a b-movie so awful, it feels like it was made for SyFy.

[elfs.livejournal.com]

I forgot about the police car scene! Thanks for that. Yeah, I guess it was so well placed that I missed it.

There was only one scene I didn't like

[dakiwiboid.livejournal.com]

Having them fire on the vice-president in a hotel kitchen seemed more than a little tasteless to me. I was 15 when Sirhan Sirhan shot Bobby Kennedy in the kitchen of the Ambassador Hotel in LA, and it hit me pretty hard. Certainly, the character in the movie is no Bobby Kennedy, but I still winced at the combination of hotel kitchen, candidate and assassins.

Other than that, I loved the movie.

[ewhac.livejournal.com]

Movie Bob's review (http://www.escapistmagazine.com/videos/view/escape-to-the-movies/2192-Red)

[lucky-otter.livejournal.com]

Y'know, I threw this on just after reading this post and I couldn't help but notice the extreme preponderance of orange and teal in the opening scenes. In fact, I'm still watching it, and it's still mostly orange and teal.

There's no escape.