Red.. in The Face !

Rating: 3/10 (10 December 2010)

You know what's the worst thing about this movie? It's the movie itself!
This is shockingly not up to its potentials. I love these stars (They chose them all top class), this formula (Old seven samurai; WAW!), but the outcome can't be more disappointing.
The script is a confused little summary of never happened great action. There are many missing links. You'll ask, for all the first 2 thirds, what's the story of the murdered reporters that they're yapping about? Hiding its facts for all that time wasn't for the sake of any thrill. We didn't even get to see their killings (???), why (Willis) got to hit (Karl Urban), the harsh CIA operative tasked in finding the leads, right in his CIA office? So he would never do that again! How (Freeman) knew the place of (Malkovich) and (Willis) after he got away from his killer?? (Urban) got astonished that the CIA had archives for its agents (huh?!). (Urban) turned into the opposite and killed his boss at the end; if that was for being afraid of (Willis)'s threat to his family, then it's so predictable, and if it was his political faith got changed in the nick of time; then you'll never know why! And seriously what kind of movie that doesn't show us the real evil man until the last 10 minutes? (to do absolutely nothing either!). I know. It's a weak movie, with tepid conflict. So I watched some people getting shot at, doing some things, fighting unseen enemy, for reasons that we hardly understand!
The characters define trivial. For instance, the leads; what's particular about them in the first place? In a movie named (The Chronicles of Riddick) the lead, (Van Diesel), kills a man with a cup of tea. This time, don't wait for something like this or remotely similar. Because while the movie brags of its so-called legendary team, I wasn't pushed to rise an eyebrow during the whole time, not saying for once: "How they did this?!". We have only 3 sequences of action (the one in the start, the fight at the CIA, and the kidnapping at last) with zero super intelligent or "Extremely Dangerous" stuff. Remember how (Morgan Freeman) dies?! It was provocatively easy. It makes you wonder; so that's how these high profile agents act?!!
The dialogue has no touchy or funny line. Not to mention being very idiot. Contemplate a moment like when (Brian Cox) is talking to (Willis) after the kidnapping of the last's girl. He says things about how crazy we become when we're in love, and recalls how his own love, (Helen Mirren), shot him in the chest once. Accordingly, what's the connection between the 2 situations for God's sake?!! Does he mean that she was crazy in love with her country?! Or does he refer to (Willis) to shot his own girlfriend in the chest??!! In earlier moment, after the kidnapping itself, the supposedly wicked line that ends the scene, concerning the reuniting of the flame between this Russian man and that English lady, is said by (Willis)?? How to smile, and crack jokes, right after your love was grabbed and disappeared??? The character played by Malkovich, standing in the same scene, is the one who should have said that! And it's unbelievable already, when every character says: "unbelievable" every now and then!
(Bruce Willis) looks more like a robot. He turned from cool into cold, reusing ALL of his reactions from his old movies again and again yet so carelessly. Sometimes I noticed that he gives the wrong reactions for the scene! He delivers what we can name as the sleepwalking version of (John McClane), or his most (Charles Bronson) performance ever. Enough to say that watching him was soooooo boring, instead of fun. Over and above; he plays a role that I highly doubt that it was written for older actor; say (Clint Eastwood), (Robert De Niro), or (Harrison Ford). Did you notice remarks like "he retired because he got old", or "grandpa"?!
This movie adds nothing to (John Malkovich), and he adds nothing to it either. HE DID IT FOR THE MONEYYYYYYY, yes, but at least it could have been entertaining along the way. His character has to be the comic relief, the nut, or let's say the older copy of The A-Team's (H.M. Murdock). However, he was useless. It was pathetic to follow a fine talent like him doing that poorly written material.
And please, (Mary Louise Parker) deserves a Razzie, a BIG one. She has no charisma, no acting talent, no comic ability, being very annoying and silly. Maybe in another movie she would be less worse, but HERE, she got to have the WORST no less!
The survivors: (Brian Cox). Aside from being great actor apart, the "feelings", that his character won, made him human, consequently memorable. Somehow you can say that again about the 93-year-old (Ernest Borgnine) in his cameo as the X-files keeper, which evoked the old real men-on-a-mission movies such as (The Dirty Dozen) and (The Wild Bunch). Watch how (Willis) regards him, in real passion, at one scene. Although the few action sequences weren't that great, occupying just 10 % of the movie, but thank God for them, otherwise it would have been completely unwatchable!
Apparently the script did interesting first 10 minutes and last 10 minutes, while making a long dull second act in between. And, as a whole, it's deprived of anything new or creative. Why, in Hollywood nowadays, they give time for everything except the script? That's a deadly sin that this movie suffers from, and dies due to it!
The conclusion: one of the worst of its kind. And compared to its list of stars, embarrassing too. In a word; the trailer is way better!