Retired Extremely Dangerous – A Highly Entertaining Film

Rating: 8/10 (12 March 2011)

In Christmas, the retired middle-aged suburban Frank Moses (Bruce Willis) has a boring routine life. Frank has a crush on the pension department attendant Sarah Ross (Mary-Louise Parker), who is a lonely woman that has disappointing dates, and he tears his checks to talk to her. When a team of heavily armed killers break in Frank's house, he escapes and travels to Sarah's house. When Frank meets Sarah, he explains that he is a former CIA agent tagged RED – Retired Extremely Dangerous - and her life is in danger since they have had many phone conversations. Sarah does not believe in his words, and Frank abducts her and he crosses the country with Sarah to meet his loyal friends and gets information. He meets and teams up with Joe Matheson (Morgan Freeman) that lives in a nursing home; the paranoid Marvin Boggs (John Malkovich) that lives hidden in the woods in Florida; the retired Russian spy Ivan Simanov (Brian Cox); and the British assassin Victoria (Helen Mirren). Their investigation shows a huge conspiracy, where the Vice-President Robert Stanton (Julian McMahon) and the gangster and former CIA agent Alexander Dunning (Richard Dreyfuss) are involved. Meanwhile, the efficient CIA agent William Cooper (Karl Urban) is assigned by his boss Cynthia Wilkes (Rebecca Pidgeon) to chase Frank.
"Red" is a highly entertaining and hilarious action movie. The non-stop action entwined with very funny situations make this film one of the best of the genre that I have recently seen. My family and I laughed a lot with the group of retired extremely dangerous agents, but John Malkovich steals the film with his paranoid character that sees conspiracy everywhere and most of the time is right. Mary-Louise Parker and Helen Mirren are great surprises since this is not their usual genre. If you a seeking a movie simply to entertain and shutdown the brain, "Red" is certainly the right one. My vote is eight.
Title (Brazil): "Red – Aposentados e Perigosos" ("Red – Retired and Dangerous")