Entertaining Mindless Bullet-fest

Rating: 5/10 (16 October 2010)

If you have read down this far in the review list, then you know the plot. Frank (Bruce Willis) is getting the old spies together to take down the bad guys.
The plot is a rehash of a dozen movies like A-Team and Rambo III where old guys get together and fight for justice. This version kept moving, and the support cast was strong including Mary-Louise Parker, John Malkovich, Richard Dreyfus, and especially Helen Mirren. Helen delivered some great lines that were fun to watch, sadly she was not in the movie that much. RED worked as a movie, and I enjoyed watching it.
Head tough-guy Bruce Willis is not interesting or likable enough, and he is the weak point of the movie. I'd like to have seen a dozen other actors. Bruce is bald, just like the cartoon character, but he is not really a very good action hero.
I liked paranoid Marvin's (John Malkovich) paranoid rants that turned out to be just what the NSA was doing -- in terms of their listening to them and tracking them.
The special effects were solid; they didn't achieve splashy. I did not care for the post card motif -- perhaps this is borrowed from the comic book.
The end of the movie was pretty clever, and I liked that.
I give this movie an average rating, so it is a five. Bruce Willis fans might give it a seven.
More: I love Helen Mirren with a machine gun. She was the best!