Wished it was better

Rating: 6/10 (5 October 2010)

What do you get when you cross an overly-used plot line, a few cool action sequences, big name actors, and a lot of shoot-em-up scenes? A so-so movie called Red, that's what.
Saw this screening last night in Scottsdale and to its credit, will have to say that pulling off an action-comedy is certainly tough. After all, how many quality movies like Lethal Weapon, Ghostbusters, or even more recently Kiss Kiss Bang Bang can be made? So Frank Moses' (Bruce Willis) life is in jeopardy, and to protect himself and get to the bottom of it he assembles his old team- former black-ops CIA type agents who were the best at what they do- including Joe Matheson (Morgan Freeman), Marvin Boggs (John Malcovich), and Victoria (Helen Mirren). His would-be girlfriend, who he's never met, also gets dragged into the action. For some reason her life is now threatened as well since she and Moses have communicated so much on the phone (Sarah Ross/Mary-Louise Parker). That is quite a stretch, but you don't see this movie expecting a stirring, or even plausible, storyline! Mary-Louise Parker is pretty fun to watch throughout the film, doing one of the best jobs with the comic relief timing, along with John Malcovich, who never fails to please. Willis, Freeman, and Mirren just didn't do much for me and I can't help but blame the director for what he was trying to pull out of the actors. They had to do the best they could with what they were given. Surprising performance by Karl Urban who plays the primary law figure chasing Willis. Enjoyed watching the intensity of his character whilst rooting against in character in the hopes the Retired Extremely Dangerous (RED) clan would prevail.
One of the other guys on the "hit" list is Richard Dreyfuss, who also provided an enjoyable, but still average performance.
A few notable scenes that won't give away the plot - the bullet of a 357 magnum going up against an RPG "bazooka" type weapon, fight scene between Willis and Urban, a guy who we see get blown to bits literally, Willis step gracefully out of a car doing a 360, Willis putting Parker's contact lens in his eye, Malcovich running after the police with a bomb strapped to him, Willis breaking into a highly secure room by kicking in the flabby wall next to the entrance door, etc Overall I felt the movie just tried too hard to be funny and several of the scenes are just plain uninteresting, but I had a good time as 12 of my friends joined me to watch it.