RED (2010)

RED (2010)

2010 PG-13 111 Minutes

Action | Adventure | Comedy | Crime | Thriller

When his peaceful life is threatened by a high-tech assassin, former black-ops agent Frank Moses reassembles his old team in a last ditch effort to survive and uncover his assailants.

Overall Rating

7 / 10
Verdict: Good

User Review

  • RED is fully equipped with light action set pieces that shows the youth of today how it's done. Retired. Extremely. Dangerous. Three words that sums up my career of playing 'Mario Kart' at tournament "pro" level. But enough about my personal and secretive endeavours, let's dive head first into the world of elderly agents exposing very important people for the charlatans that they are. As silly as this DC comic book adaptation sounds, and it does venture into the stupid very frequently, it's just damn good fun and so watchable that you'll be eternally smiling as Willis devours a hearty breakfast by himself. The CIA are tasked in wiping out Frank Moses, a retired analyst who was part of a special operation years ago, to which he must find out the truth before everyone involved is killed.

    Mixing action and light-hearted comedy often produces tepid results. The gags being more broken than Malkovich's mind. Fortunately this adaptation knows exactly what it is and never tries to be anything else. It's straight up fun, entertaining and swift. Agents literally explode into smithereens. I mean, literally. Boom! An exquisitely dressed Mirren unleashes a barrage of bullets from a gun that is three times the size of her. Willis actually smiles. And I'm absolutely fine with Parker getting kidnapped and handcuffed to a bed against her will. Perhaps the only time I'll allow that, ever.

    Sure, the plot descends into a blah-fest that no one cares about, mostly due to the environment changing every eight seconds (to which a postcard is shoved in my face). And the climax is so anti-climactic that Willis essentially sneezes on the villain and the world is saved. Yet the cast packed tonnes of charisma into their performances, that they outdo the script given to them. The older cast members delivered the goods, but so did Urban who channelled his inner badass in preparation for 'Dredd'. Despite the generic forgettable plot of RED that not even the fantastic cast cared about and Willis munching on Parker's face at the end (ew...), it's the flamboyant action and humour that elevated this adaptation into be classified as "good".