Good action doesn't get old, it just gets smarter

Rating: 8/10 (12 March 2014)

While Bruce Willis was entertaining running around in Live Free or Die Hard, you could tell there was a nineteen (Die Hard) or seventeen (Die Hard 2) year gap between his last outing. And RED is the perfect vehicle for this change. Frank Moses is not an old guy trying to be a young man, he's an old, lonely, grouchy guy, who's lived his life in the shadows and is now trying to get some company, when someone starts trying to kill him for something that happened in his past. Given how secretive his work has been, and how nearly everyone he meets ends up dead, Moses has quite a few friends willing to help him figure out what is happening, all of whom not are not only strong actors, but willing to play it for laughs. Malkovich, as an overly paranoid killer, whose paranoia could be justified gets the level of worry just about right for the film, and his banter with Willis makes for a great buddy film. I once saw an SNL skit about Morgan Freeman, were he's bemoaning never being the romantic lead or action hero, always just helping out white guys with their problems. And this film is no different. He's just as watchable as ever, but the idea of him crawling through ventilation ducts or involved in a high speed car chase dies early on. And then there's Helen Mirren, playing a cool as ice MI6 sniper. This is a great role for her, and you half expect to see her take out a room of armed goons while cooking, and then bemoan the fact that she hasn't added enough seasoning. All the characters are very strong, but psychologically unbalanced, so their main hunter - Karl Urban as the ultra professional William Cooper - makes a great foil for the geriatrics. He's a young man who does things by the book, and this youth vs experience makes the cat and mouse chase stand out from other, similar stories. Oh, and Mary-Louise Parker as the love interest dragged from a cubicle into the middle of all the craziness is fun to watch, as her life spirals out of control in the company of all the guns, bombs and car chases, but you'll want to see this film for the four older actors teaching the young ones how it's done.