This is what "turn off your brain" movies should be like

Rating: 8/10 (2 July 2020)

RED is the story of a group of Retired Extremely Dangerous people who are being targeted for assassination by the government they once served. I am a sucker for a man-on-the-run story, and there's something fun about one where the guy on the run is also smarter and stronger than everyone chasing him. I love going on this journey, and Bruce Willis is the perfect guy for the lead role because he looks like someone who is getting older but could still hold up in a fight against anyone. I like the layers of planning that go into all these operations, and how they carefully execute their plans so that they can continue to come out on top when faced with insurmountable odds. I also think most of the comedy is solid, particularly with John Malkovich as the hyper-paranoid former agent who is constantly shown to be justified in his paranoia. I also have to mention how much I always love Karl Urban, and his performance here was amazing.
I will say, there are a lot of people being killed in RED, and many of them are government agents who are just doing their jobs. You have to be willing to accept that the protagonists of the film aren't all that concerned with killing other people and potentially causing some collateral damage as well. Since the action and violence is so exaggerated and extreme I kind of accepted it, but when my mind starts to think too much about the film, then I realize these are more like anti-heroes than anything else. There are also a few too many convenient last-minute rescues that started to make it feel like these people could do anything. I can let a lot of that slide, though, since I know this is all based on a comic book and there's an added suspension of disbelief in those stories. While RED is far from a great film, it is an enjoyable one and that's all I really needed from it. I had fun watching RED, so it accomplished what it set out to do.