Red (2010)
Frank, Joe, Marvin and Victoria used to be the CIA's top agents, but the secrets they know just made them the Agency's top targets. Now framed for assassination, they must use all of their collective cunning, experience and teamwork to stay one step ahead of their deadly pursuers and stay alive. To stop the operation, the team embarks on an impossible, cross-country mission. But when you're considered RED (Retired, Extremely Dangerous), an impossible mission is just another day at the office. Based on the cult DC Comics graphic novels by Warren Ellis and Cully Hamner.
First off, I would like to commend John Malkovich for his seemlessly easy "Rebound" from his "worst of" performance in Jonah Hex. He may never recapture his stellar form he displayed for "In the Line of Fire", but with noteworthy performances in such movies, and Burn After Reading, Secretariat, and now Red, he once again demonstates why he is one of the better "character actors" in recent history.
In addition to his hillarious performance, you also have a number of other "A-list actors, such as Morgan Freeman, Helen Mirren, and of course Bruce Willis.
For What it's worth, this does not translate into an "award worthy" movie, but then again, noone in the cast seems to care, which is why this is such an entertaining movie. It's solid acting, adequate story telling, fun special effects, colorful characters, and even pacing, without all the unecessary "gobbily gook", that sometimes weighs down a lot of these summer movies.
The story involves a former agent(Willis), who is unexpectedly "targeted" about the same time he is pursuing a potential love interest (Parker). The two of them in turn track down his former team members (Mirram, Malkovich, and Freeman), in hopes of finding out why the team is indeed on the CIA hitlist. The ending, without giving anything away is a bit "out there", even for a movie with many over the top performances, but it's nevertheless a good sign that Hollywood can still occassionally produce a well crafted action flick, that promotes among other things, gender equality, smart filmaking, and good old fashioned summer action excellence.
not worth seeing twice but well worth once.
