OK effort but just not more than basic stuff

Rating: 5/10 (19 December 2015)

With its jazzy score and high quality cast, Red thinks it's a pretty cool movie and to be fair at times it is, but for me just not overall. It uses action well and uses it enough not to make you think about the plot going on around it too much but it isn't good enough for me to cover the pretty average movie this is. It's pretty generic really, I mean don't get me wrong it tries to maybe make itself feel new and refreshing but for me it never steps up to a level at which it needs to get to if it wants to be enjoyable, but actually not also brainless. The plot revolves around an old team of RED (Retired, Extremely Dangerous) ex agents who come together to try and stop high skilled assassins and thugs sent from unknown assailants.
The cast has a lot of big names in it, Bruce Willis, Morgan Freeman, John Malkovich, Helen Mirren and other names where you just might watch thinking "Hey its them, what are they doing in this". It does kind of feel odd if you come from the perspective of knowing nothing about this, big names are basically turned into action stars and with the exception really of Bruce Willis, many of the big names in this you would not expect to ever see them in such roles. They have fun for sure and it is fun in certain moments, but I feel it isn't fun enough and it never does enough to truly feel satisfactory. Bruce Willis as Frank Moses is, well he looks bored in the role, he isn't great here and although I think he is great casting, he doesn't do a good job. For me the two polar opposite actors here are Mary-Louise Parker who is pretty bad and John Malkovich who is pretty awesome, could not be different in how they play out their individual roles.
Robert Schwentke directs and he doesn't do a great job, doesn't get enough out of the story and although the action is well taken care of, some choices in the pacing and timing of things is not done well. Too often in this it is a case of why didn't they shoot them in the head, why did they take so long to shoot and ultimately, who would or how would you ever get out of that or do such a thing. I don't like to criticise a film like this too much I mean it is mediocre but does contain some OK bits certainly, as mentioned the action is good, Malkovich is pretty funny and sometimes the cast can make all the difference in a scene, so this is not all bad by any means.
I must mention the screenplay from Jon Hoeber and Erich Hoeber who both create a script that could I guess on paper look pretty nice but when visualised like how it is, just does not. The movie looks like it wants to be stylish with nicely done stunts, pretty pumped up action characters and a score that gives off a smell of self- satisfaction. In fact on the point of self-satisfaction, that is the one thing I truly felt made this irritating, you can see where the people making this thought "oh that looks cool, put it in" and I don't mean the actors but just the technical side of things as all. I'm not going to say don't see this, it's nothing bad in fact I don't even think it's poor but it is average though, same old and it just for me couldn't escape that feel.