AARP vs the CIA

Rating: 8/10 (20 October 2010)

Despite an obscure acronym for its title, "Red" is a wildly entertaining live-action cartoon. Logic and reality vanish early on, and the audience embarks on an imaginative ride through CIA-conspiracy-paranoia territory. The CIA is assassinating a list of operatives from a covert operation in Guatemala. Retired agent, Bruce Willis, is awakened from a dreary life of chatting about lost checks with a Social Security administrator, Mary-Louise Parker, and solicits aid to solve the murders from several equally retired former compatriots. The geezer quotient in "Red" is extremely high, and AARP could use the film to promote how exciting life can be after retirement. Led by 55-year-old Bruce Willis, the rough retirees include 73-year-old Morgan Freeman, 56-year-old John Malkovich, 64-year-old Brian Cox, and 65-year-old Helen Mirren. Not content with this stellar cornucopia of seasoned performers, director Robert Schwentke enlists 63-year-old Richard Dreyfuss and 93-year-old Ernest Borgnine, who looks thirty years younger, in supporting roles. With four Oscars and decades of experience between them, the cast is expectedly superior to the material.
However, the engaging plot, based on a graphic novel by Warren Ellis and Cully Hamner, is often amusing and moves at a breakneck speed that shatters stereotypes of senior citizens. Thirty-eight-year-old Karl Urban, who plays Willis's adversary, CIA agent William Cooper, comes up bloodied and winded against his elders. The film appears to have been shot all over the U.S., and the clever use of postcard inserts keeps the audience aware of the settings, even if the scene changes occasionally confuse the players. "Red" benefits most from its exceptional cast. Willis plays Willis in his best "Die Hard" mode; Malkovich plays Malkovich in his amusing wacko mode; and Mirren plays the proper English lady who serves tea, arranges flowers, and occasionally kills people. Like the audience, Parker is initially caught up unwillingly in the mayhem, but her lust for adventure takes hold and she begins to enjoy the ride. While perhaps not a classic, "Red" is nonetheless a good action film that delivers, and a trove of outstanding actors that have aged like fine wine appear to be having a great time and supplementing their Social Security checks at the same time.