Halfway between comedy and action but doesn't quite work well as either

Rating: 3/10 (15 October 2010)

Red isn't as great as the positive reviews its been getting. Its really not that funny in the comedy part and the action scenes aren't that impressive. Some cool fight scenes but not that many. The scenes have been done many times before and have done better. With a talented cast, I expected the film to be much better, and I was disappointed. The main problem with the film is that it tried too hard to be hip but fails considering the age's of the main cast. There were many jokes and gags that failed and that simply were not funny. The romance was also cheesy.
The characters weren't that great. Though the only saving grace here is John Malkovich, who steals every scene and is really quite funny. Same with Mary-Louise Parker, she performed well and was the most intriguing and careful character IMO. Bruce Willis as Frank is, well Willis, not a stretch- seen him done the same role a few times now. The negatives are Helen Mirren, though looks excellent for her age, doesn't make her role feel realistic enough (she's 65 firing machine guns/cursing), it seemed too fake and her attitude was really annoying. In the third act when she becomes a presence the film goes downhill. Morgan Freeman is really criminally underused, and Karl Urban is quite talented and is becoming very versatile but wasn't that convincing as the lead villain. All in all, don't expect anything original, or good. It's not terrible, just below average, and should have been much better.