'RED' : archive from 10th November 2010.

There is a lot to like about action comedy 'RED' - which I saw last night and very entertaining it is too. Directed by Robert Schwentke and based on a limited comic book series of the same name this film was made for US$58M and made US$200M and stars Bruce Willis (always at his best in these actioners); John Malkovich (hamming it up & loving it); Morgan Freeman (as steady as ever); Helen Mirren (always delightful and to see her taking a bullet and toting a machine gun is worth the ticket price alone); Brian Cox, Karl Urban, Richard Dreyfus and Ernest Borgnine - what an all star line up and great fun.

The 'RED' here is the shortening for 'Retired and Extremely Dangerous' and refers to former black-ops CIA Agent Frank Moses (Bruce Willis) who is now happily retired and living the quiet life in suburban Cleveland. Chatting over the phone, as he does often, to Customer Service Agent Sarah Ross (Mary-Louise Parker) at the Pension Office who issue his monthly pension cheque which he promptly rips up just so he can call Sarah and chat away the day, he is later that night raided by a six-man hit squad that Frank quickly dispenses with. Realising that his phone has been tapped he gets over to Kansas City to protect Sarah, but when she refuses to leave with the guy she has only ever spoken to on the phone, he binds and gags her and so becomes his reluctant companion. Needing to uncover who is tracking him down and why, he turns to his former associates for help, while back at the CIA HQ Agent William Cooper (Karl Urban) is instructed to hunt down Frank and kill him.

Frank then heads off to New Orleans to see his CIA Mentor Joe Matheson (Morgan Freeman) living in a nursing home who advises the same hit squad that attacked Frank, took out a New York Times Reporter. So Frank and Sarah head to New York looking for clues where they come across a hit-list, but not before Cooper has arrived on the scene and bungles his attempt to get to Frank and secure the list, resulting in his (temporary) arrest. From there they get to Marvin Boggs (John Malkovich) also a former black-ops CIA Agent and now retired, but a deeply paranoid conspiracy theorist.

Upon reading the list Boggs comes to the realisation that all those shown therein are linked to an earlier 1981 Guatemalan covert operation in which Frank and Marvin were involved. One on the list is still alive and so he is tracked down and before being gunned down from an above helicopter reveals that the mission in Guatemala involved the extraction of an important individual who is now the Vice President of the free world (Julian McMahon), but back then was involved in the massacre of village civilians.

Along the way there are further altercations with Cooper in which Frank is injured but manages to escape, they seek safe haven in the home of former assassin Victoria (Helen Mirren) who joins the quest, and they secure a meeting with an illegal arms dealer (Richard Dreyfus) whose name is not on the list but whom they believe is linked in some way that they have yet to uncover. At this point the house is surrounded by Cooper and his CIA henchmen who open fire, but in the confusion and the hail of bullets our RED Team escape courtesy of ex-Russian Secret Agent and former lover of Victoria (Brian Cox).

This all leads to a fundraiser for the Vice-President back in Chicago which the RED Team infiltrate and successfully manage to kidnap the Vice-President which Frank now wants to trade for Sarah who was taken captive by Cooper during in the firefight back at Victoria's house. As all the protagonists come together the body count rises as the Vice President is killed by the arms dealer who is killed by Frank leaving Cooper to clean things up as he agrees to let the RED guys walk free no further questions asked!

'RED 2' was released in 2013 and with a  bigger budget at US$84M grossed close to US$150M reuniting the same surviving cast and joined by Anthony Hopkins, Catherine Zeta-Jones, David Thewlis, Tim Pigott-Smith and Neal McDonough. 'RED 3' is apparently in the works.

I really enjoyed this mash up of tongue in cheek humour and action, and commend you to see this if you haven't already, and on a dark cold wet evening sit in the comfort of your own lounge and watch 'RED 1 & 2' back to back - you won't be disappointed as the oldies kick-ass, and Mirren exhibits bad-ass sass! Great fun!

-Steve, at Odeon Online-