Good Fun but With Limitations

Rating: 7/10 (15 October 2010)

While this movie will please most, especially this time of year when usual flair is aimed at a more highbrow audience with eyes towards the Oscars, I wish more of a direction was taken than the mix of styles and substance this movie portrayed. It's as if Robert Schwentke, the director of Red, couldn't decide on doing a pure spoof of action films going with pure slapstick comedy or if he wanted a buddy caper film a la Ocean's 11 or the Italian Job.
Many of these 'team' films have come out lately with the A-Team, The Expendables, The Losers and others doing a better job of mixing in their humor than Red did. Here it seemed forced and out of place most times.
Don't get me wrong, it is good fun with some great actors doing great things with enough action thrown into the mix to please any popcorn crowd, however I often felt when watching these actors perform their craft I was on the outside of an inside joke.
Many times they just seemed too pleased with themselves delivering campy lines and performing stunts well beyond any rational suspension of disbelief. The movie would have been much better had they taken a nod towards their age, a la The Expendables and not run around like teenagers on spring break.
Reading early reviews have lauded John Malkovich's role and he is as ever a pleasure to watch on screen however he exemplifies the problems with this movie. Richard Dreyfuss, Morgan Freeman, Helen Mirren, et all, each playing almost stereotypical roles which if hadn't been seen before would have been much more entertaining. There just wasn't much new to see in this film although it's packaged together so slickly and clean we enjoy unwrapping the present more than the gift inside.
For me, lost amongst the veterans patting themselves on their collective backs, was a delightful performance by Mary-Louise Parker. She not only holds her own against these heavy weights but surprisingly in a farce based movie lends legitimacy to the chaos and ridiculous action around her.
Without giving away plot and story, most action scenes and scrapes gotten into by the main characters are so far fetched and unbelievable, especially the way they escape the messes they bury themselves into in the first place, you wonder if the writers were out of original ideas and simply watched old Warner Brothers' cartoons for their plot twists.
However, all this being said you will not be disappointed with Red if you go in expecting some light fun and not wanting a film which will spark much conversation afterwards. While I found myself smiling through most of the film and even laughing out loud in some parts, if I had wanted to include a favorite scene in this review I would be hard pressed to remember one with enough clarity to include thus necessitating the 'spoiler' check box to be used.
Bottom line: Go and enjoy this latest Bruce Willis flick but don't expect Die Hard.