"Red" reminded me of a kid hopped up on sugar and adrenaline - just when I thought the movie couldn't get any crazier, it did. It is also one of those rare action movies that manages to be funny throughout as well. When you combine that with an all-star cast, you get this movie, which was great and definitely fun to watch.
Frank Moses (Bruce Willis, "Surrogates") is a retired CIA operative who now has a hit on him. He soon figures out that many of his old CIA friends are on the same hit list, and he decides to find them and gather the gang back together - including Joe (Morgan Freeman, "Invictus"), Marvin (John Malkovich, "Secretariat"), and Victoria (Helen Mirren, "Love Ranch"). Also traveling with him and his friends is Sarah (Mary-Louise Parker, TV's "Weeds"), definitely the youngest of the bunch, on whom Frank is trying to make a good impression.
The movie had great action scenes and also a lot of comedy in it. It might as well be called The Bruce Willis Movie, because he plays a role similar to a lot of his usual "action figure" movies, like the "Die Hard" franchise. It was fun to see all these "old fogies" in such an action-packed movie - after all, how often do you get to see Helen Mirren toting a machine gun? There were good supporting actors in the film as well, including Richard Dreyfuss ("Piranha") as an enemy of the group's and Karl Urban ("Black Water Transit") as the CIA agent who is trying to hunt and kill Willis and his gang.
Yes, see this movie. It was one of the most enjoyable action movies I've seen all year, and the fact that it was so funny made me like it even more. Sometimes when you get a group of A-listers like this together they don't deliver, but "Red" definitely lives up to its hype, and I would recommend it for anyone looking for an action movie or a good comedy.
"Red" will be released in theaters this Friday, October 15th.
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Liz Parker is a 2009 graduate of the University of Michigan. She currently works as an Assistant Medical Editor for a pathology website. Visit her at her movie blog Yes/No Films