Badass Red Army!

Rating: 8/10 (22 December 2011)

Red alert! Red alert! Red alert! Red alert! Redrum! Redrum! Redrum! OK, how did that transform itself into a critical warning to a creepy "murder spelled backwards" fixation? I just wanted to provide this review an initial "Shining" moment. OK, enough. I am here to review the action-comedy "Red". So "rede" or not, here I come. At first, I was a little puzzled upon seeing that "Red" was nominated for a Best Motion Picture (Comedy/Musical) Golden Globe nomination last year. But I must admit now that "Red" was a viable nominee. I had much fun watching this movie about retired black-ops agents who reassemble their team when retired ops leader Frank Moses is targeted by a group of assailants who might very well have government connections. "Red" stands for retired and extremely dangerous, which fits the bill these days of Regis Philbin, George Bush (both of them), and Joan Rivers (is she retired?). Director Robert Schwentke excels in keeping the "Red" action unpredictable with a nice touch of sarcastic comedy, due much to the on- target screenplay of Jon & Erich Hoeber. The geriatric and non-geriatric cast of "Red" was stellar, even though that is "old news" since this movie was released last year. Bruce Willis was vintage Bruce with his wily performance as Frank Moses. Malkovich! Malkovich! Malkovich! Sorry, I got a bit excited that the actor human being John Malkovich was in this movie, and delivered yet another scene-stealing performance as retired ops Marvin Boggs. Morgan Freeman as retired ops Joe Matheson did not have to do much acting, but his presence is always welcome in any movie even when his narration is not required. Damn was Dame Helen Mirren good as the badass retired ops Victoria, and they give her a machine gun in this one! Yea Baby! Other great supporting turns came in the way of Brian Cox playing Russian inside man Ivan Simanov, Karl Urban as CIA Agent William Cooper, and the lovely Mary-Louise Parker as Moses' romantic interest Sarah Ross. So head on over to the "red light district" and get the red out and get your DVD or Blu-Ray Player ready for "Red". **** Good