"Die Hard With A Pension"

Rating: Null/10 (19 October 2011)

When you know that RED stands for 'Retired: Extremely Dangerous', you expect older actors and explosive action and you get plenty of both from a film with its tongue so firmly in its cheek that it's almost a spoof. Leading the gang of ex special ops personnel is Bruce Willis which might suggest an alternative title of "Die Hard With A Pension".
Other members of the old - in both senses of the word - team are gravelly Morgan Freeman, manic Johm Malkovich and cool Helen Mirren (great to see the one-time Queen with huge weaponry). Want some more old-timers? You've got Brian Cox, Richard Dreyfus and even Ernest Borgnine (now in his 90s). The only young actors - and they are in their 40s - are Mary-Louise Parker and less well known Karl Urban.
So this is not a movie for the usual teenage demographic of much Hollywood fare but more a pitch to attract the middle-aged viewer who will enjoy familiar faces combined with action and humour but wonder where the plot went.