It becomes what it promises it won't be.

Rating: 5/10 (9 April 2011)

I couldn't help but smile when I saw the trailers for RED. The idea of retired CIA agents struggling to find meaning in a bloodless life is the stuff of great satire. I like that Willis has the guts to delve into self parody and I like that the film deals with age in a comedic and yet rooted way. The problem with RED is that it promises to be a parody of the action film and the action character and instead it becomes a rather boring action film that we have seen hundreds of times before. This film about being over the hill is inhabited by characters who didn't get the memo.
I think the casting of the lead role of Frank Moses could have been done better. Don't get me wrong I love Bruce Willis and he may be my favorite of the crop of action stars. The problem though is that Bruce Willis is merely playing Bruce Willis. The beginning of the film is inspired. Willis' Moses is bored out of his mind and occupies his time with mundane chores of suburbia. Seeing Willis' cold blooded killer put out an illuminated Frosty for Christmas is brilliant satire. When the film get's going it becomes a boring action film with comedy that seems stupid. Willis is playing every character he ever played and no inclination of that boredom or aging is incorporated into this performance. A pity given that this subplot was done very well by Willis in his film Surrogates. I've seen Willis shoot down bad guys before but why not show him shoot down bad guys with a bad back? Why not show him not getting the same rush from the kill? Moses is back on the saddle as if he never left it without any time to dust the old girl off and isn't this what we were led to believe RED would be about? Wouldn't it have been a more interesting film had Malkovich and Willis traded roles? Malkovich looks like crap in this film and yet he still more or less performs the same action feats as Willis does.
I can't fault Bruce Willis for being Bruce Willis because I truly do enjoy him. I somewhat expected this might happen and wasn't really all that surprised that it did. I thought that the picture might be saved by it's supporting ensemble cast. Malkovich is good but the rest aren't. Am I wrong in saying that Morgan Freeman has been reduced to being a walking stereotype? I mean this guy has single handedly created and propped up the modern 'magic Negro' role. Freeman is here to mentor Willis whom he still refers to as kid. Why? Isn't Willis old enough to be Freeman's counterpart rather than his under? This performance is rung in by Freeman and I have to say it is the worst one he has ever given. I would kill to see Freeman play a villain. Helen Mirren looks like she is having a blast but she also is chewing the scenery tremendously. This performance is way too over the top to ever be taken seriously. Sure it's a comedy but comedy stems from some level of individual reality. Helen doesn't seem to give any sense of motivation to this character other than she is meant to look sexy(or as sexy as you might expect an aging Helen Mirren to look) and blow things up. It's kind of funny but not nearly funny enough to warrant cardboard cut out characterization. Brian Cox plays Ivan a former KGB type who joins the gang out of mutual respect for each other. Ivan and Moses trade stories and scars and it is revealed that Ivan is Mirren's Victoria's former lover. Great! Motivation and conflict playing off of and parodying antiquated Cold War silliness. Mirren uses none of it but Cox does and gives a much better performance because of it. Malkovich is my favorite performance in the film simply because he is having fun but is also in tune with his character.
If the straight action route was the one to be taken than a villain is necessary and RED doesn't have one. Richard Dreyfuss kind of fills in the role but he is quickly dispatched. RED doesn't work as a straight action film without a villain and there are so many amble opportunities to create one. Why not have another aged agent serve as a rouge? Malkovich's Martin seems to suggest that the old grudges are still there. Wouldn't it be funny to have the entire conflict be based off of problems that should have been forgotten years ago. In the end the villain is the Vice President of the United States and his handlers. I was really expecting and hoping for a Cheney parody but alas the film isn't that clever.
RED is a standard action film wrapped in the classic action film package using the classic action film recipe. It has some clever moments but even the most tedious action films usually do. RED is actually a great trap because it lures us in with the bait of freshness and I fell for it. The action genre needs a young hero or else Willis will actually have to face his own mortality and age.