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RED is a fun filled comedy/thriller. Frank Moses (Bruce Willis) is a retired CIA super assassin and spy. He is lonely and lives a miserable life. His only source of companionship is talking on the phone to a clerk, Sarah Ross (Mary-Louise Parker), who works in an office a thousand mile away. They have never met. Then, suddenly Frank finds himself the target of CIA assassins and runs for his life. Along the way, he rescues the girl and joins forces with three other retirees, Joe (Morgan Freeman), a neurotic eccentric Marvin (John Malkovich) and an ex professional assassin Victoria (Helen Mirren.) Together, they battle the vicious CIA agent William Cooper (Karl Urban), and the political-industrial complex with wit, humor, machine guns, rocket launchers and friendly Russian spies. This is a delightful movie with great stars.
There is nothing original in the story. Similar spy stories and spoofs have been made many times. The beauty of the movie is that the dialog is almost tongue-in-cheek. In fact, if the dialog and the delivery were modified slightly, this movie could be taken as a serious spy thriller. It is the direction and the acting that makes the difference. Frank Moses is a lonely guy who, after years of service to his country as a top spy has been sent into retirement. He lives in a drab neighborhood and is lamenting his past life. His old friends are either dead or in retirement homes. His only friend is Sarah who is a customer relations clerk in the pension office somewhere in Kansas. He keeps tearing up his pension checks so he can call her, talk to her, and ask her for a duplicate. Then one night, the house is raided by CIA agents who have a sanction to kill him. He manages to kill his assailants escaped unharmed. Next, he stops at Sarah’s apartment and kidnaps her before the agents get to her. Then, with an initially unwilling Sarah in tow, he seeks out his old surviving friends, Joe, Marvin and Victoria who are also targets of the assassins. With the CIA killers in hot pursuit, they try to discover who ordered their eliminations and their discovery leads to very high places in the political-industrial complex that runs the USA. There are so many little nuances and moments that make this movie so attractive. For example, the meek real estate lady who turns into the ruthless killer or John Malkovich’s paranoia in every step of the way. John would make a wonderful comedian. We would highly recommend this movie for the entire family. RED is a fun filled comedy/thriller. Frank Moses (Bruce Willis) is a retired CIA super assassin and spy. He is lonely and lives a miserable life. His only source of companionship is talking on the phone to a clerk, Sarah Ross (Mary-Louise Parker), who works in an office a thousand mile away. They have never met. Then, suddenly Frank finds himself the target of CIA assassins and runs for his life. Along the way, he rescues the girl and joins forces with three other retirees, Joe (Morgan Freeman), a neurotic eccentric Marvin (John Malkovich) and an ex professional assassin Victoria (Helen Mirren.) Together, they battle the vicious CIA agent William Cooper (Karl Urban), and the political-industrial complex with wit, humor, machine guns, rocket launchers and friendly Russian spies. This is a delightful movie with great stars. Robert Schwentke is a relative new comer to the big screen. His most recent success was “The Time Travelers Wife” a nice melodrama. In RED, he is greatly assisted by a team of super talented actors. Helen Mirren, Morgan Freeman, John Malkovich, Bruce Willis and more. In fact, three of the actors, Mirren, Dreyfus and Ernst Borgnine are Academy Award winners. One could not ask for more. Schwentke, was also given an unlimited budget for special effects. The movie is resplendent in chase scenes, helicopter chases, rocket launchers and more. However, Schwentke, uses them wisely. Unlike what another director would have done, he has not made his movie around the special effects, which by the way are very impressive. Instead, he has concentrated on the story and the actors, which are central to the theme of this movie. There is nothing original in the story. Similar spy stories and spoofs have been made many times. The beauty of the movie is that the dialog is almost tongue-in-cheek. In fact, if the dialog and the delivery were modified slightly, this movie could be taken as a serious spy thriller. It is the direction and the acting that makes the difference. Frank Moses is a lonely guy who, after years of service to his country as a top spy has been sent into retirement. He lives in a drab neighborhood and is lamenting his past life. His old friends are either dead or in retirement homes. His only friend is Sarah who is a customer relations clerk in the pension office somewhere in Kansas. He keeps tearing up his pension checks so he can call her, talk to her, and ask her for a duplicate. Then one night, the house is raided by CIA agents who have a sanction to kill him. He manages to kill his assailants escaped unharmed. Next, he stops at Sarah’s apartment and kidnaps her before the agents get to her. Then, with an initially unwilling Sarah in tow, he seeks out his old surviving friends, Joe, Marvin and Victoria who are also targets of the assassins. With the CIA killers in hot pursuit, they try to discover who ordered their eliminations and their discovery leads to very high places in the political-industrial complex that runs the USA. There are so many little nuances and moments that make this movie so attractive. For example, the meek real estate lady who turns into the ruthless killer or John Malkovich’s paranoia in every step of the way. John would make a wonderful comedian. We would highly recommend this movie for the entire family.
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