Buddy's Film (and Game) Insights

Everyone has an opinion!

Movie Reviews

Red

Posted by Buddy Acker on October 20, 2010 at 1:39 AM

RED

Apparently, Bruce Willis is a grandpa


Image and video hosting by TinyPic

 

RED is extremely effective as an action movie, but it doesn’t quite work as a comedy, and since it’s supposed to be a combination of the two, it isn’t that great of a movie. But fortunately, it still has brief moments of sheer intensity and a great cast to keep it chugging along. It’s nothing I haven’t seen before: normal-looking people who are really CIA agents, old people outsmarting their younger counterparts, and explosions galore. Well…I’ve never seen Helen Mirren firing a machine gun. That was a definite plus. So was John Malkovich’s character.


RED is about a group of former CIA agents who are being targeted for assassination for reasons unknown to them. This group is composed of Frank Moses (Bruce Willis), Marvin Boggs (Malkovich), Joe Matheson (Morgan Freeman), and Victoria (Mirren). They set out to uncover the truth. Frank has developed an interest in a woman named Sarah Ross (Mary-Louise Parker), who he kidnaps in order to protect her. She soon grows a little too fond of being shot at and decides to help out.


This is basically the main story structure for the film. I’m not going to give a long plot synopsis because it doesn’t matter. People aren’t going to go to this movie for the story anyhow. They’re going to go for the action, which is okay, and the comedy, which is scarce. They’re going to go to see Bruce Willis kicking the shit out of some bad guys. They’re going to go to see Morgan Freeman smile, which is something that a lot of people enjoy for some reason (me included). They’re going to go to see Dame Helen Mirren unloading rounds into a speeding car. Okay, I’ll admit it: maybe that last one was just me.


All of the actors are having fun, which is good in a movie like this. It adds to the enjoyableness of the film itself. Seeing Malkovich shooting a missile out of the air with a bullet and saying, “Old man, my ass” or watching as Richard Dreyfuss tells Freeman that they can’t touch him before Freeman says “Sure we can” and slaps the crap out of him were two of the most enjoyable scenes in the movie for me. BUT I SAW THOSE SCENES IN THE TRAILER! The laughs are rare, sadly. I guess I sort of snickered when Sarah asks Frank what kind of consequences they could face as a result of their actions and when he tells her that it’s either death or life in prison, she responds with “Awesome!” Oh and when she told him that she was hoping he would have hair, I laughed.


Another part that didn’t quite work for me was when a member of the team (not telling who) dies and the rest of the team shrug it off as if it were nothing. I think they propose a toast to this person if I’m not mistaken but then it’s like they just forget about them. I thought all these people were close friends? Oh well. The part where Malkovich uses a gun as a sort of baseball bat and knocks a guy’s grenade back at him is also ludicrous and so is the ensuing explosion, which seems to consume an entire cargo container. Nobody expected this movie to be completely realistic, though. If they did, they would know that if Mirren hit a guy with her pocketbook in the real world, he would have simply laughed at her.


But all-in-all, RED is still a good time at the movies if taken lightly. It wouldn’t hurt to wait for the DVD although the experience won’t be nearly the same. It will be much quieter and much less impressive. I would also advise renting it before buying it. It will never be anybody’s favorite movie, but as far as that goes, a majority of the population can’t decide what their favorite movie is anyway.

 

Score: :):):)1/2

Categories: None

Post a Comment

Oops!

Oops, you forgot something.

Oops!

The words you entered did not match the given text. Please try again.

Already a member? Sign In

0 Comments