RED - Retired and Extremely Dangerous

Rating: 7/10 (26 January 2011)

"Old man, my ass."
Red is the action romp that recent movies like The Losers and Knight & Day have tried, and mostly failed, to be. It's fun without being dumb, funny, not too long or short, action- packed, and has a great cast as a bonus.
The story is about a retired C.I.A. field operative (Willis) who is seemingly targeted by his own agency for death, for some unknown reason. He goes on the run with his recent acquaintance/love interest (Mary-Louise Parker) and looks up a bunch of his similarly retired buddies to help him find out what's going on.
And it's that cast of supporting characters that really makes Red worthwhile. It includes Helen Mirren, Morgan Freeman, John Malkovich, and Brian Cox, and they all seemed to be having a ball as action stars. Karl Urban also pitches in as the primary agent in the hunt for our dangerous oldsters. You'd be hard-pressed to find a better cast than that in ANY movie, regardless of genre.
My one real problem with Red was the story. The best that could be said about it was that it was there, and it gave an excuse for the gang to get together and hop all around the U.S. Action movies admittedly don't need spectacular plots, but that of Red often left me cold.
Other than that, I give Red a full recommendation. The casting was inspired, and it's just undeniably entertaining to see these guys (especially Mirren and Malkovich) blowing people away and just generally proving that bad-asses come in all ages.