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Friday, October 15, 2010
MOVIE REVIEW
Red
A Code Name For "Old", With Paintball Specials
Richard Dreyfuss faces the music: John Malkovich, Morgan Freeman and Bruce
Willis, in Robert Schwentke's "Red".
Summit
by
Omar P.L. Moore/PopcornReel.com
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Friday,
October 15, 2010
Bruce Willis has managed to dance between the raindrops in his film career at
times; the deplorable "Cop Out" this year has set the bar awfully low for
quality and coherence, and in 1991 "Hudson Hawk" was cold turkey for critics and
audiences alike. Somehow, "Red", which opened today, makes Mr. Willis cool
and hip again on the big screen, and Mr. Schwentke's film surrounds him with an
entertaining group of ensemble performances by John Malkovich, Morgan Freeman,
Richard Dreyfuss, Helen Mirren and Mary-Louise Parker.
A band of retired CIA agents led by Frank Moses (Mr. Willis) is framed for a
crime. They have to elude capture long enough on a cross-country trek to
get back to CIA headquarters in Langley, Virginia to expose a cover-up.
Based on the DC Comics series created by Warren Ellis and Cully Hamner, "Red"
(Retired, Extremely Dangerous) is oddball fun on the big screen, though for me
it wasn't as amusing as many audience members indicated. Granted, "Red"
contains plenty of good one-liners, and like "Kick-Ass", the film's energy level
sustains itself throughout. The film's situations and set-ups however,
aren't especially funny. The saving grace is that the actors generate
enough vigor and humor in their delivery of dialogue to keep audiences engaged.
On a less positive note, "Red" often has some of its women look like silly,
subjugated fools. One woman is repeatedly tied up with duct tape (many
more female voices were heard laughing at these occasions than male ones),
another is objectified in a moment of levity. Despite this and other
negatives, "Red" doesn't disguise itself as anything but a sly, subversive comic
action romp. Mr. Schwentke's film has the spirit of a "Bugsy Malone" for
grown-ups. (Or, a geriatric edition of Steven
Soderbergh's "Oceans'" films.)
"Red" dispatches of some significant characters yet retains other lesser ones
whose presence is questionable. The film also waxes schizophrenic; the
tone changes come in waves, continuously shifting from comedy to abrupt, kinetic
violence. Sometimes both are mixed together. "Red" is also guilty of
dragging its feet, and it could have been clipped by about 20 minutes.
Black and white: Mary-Louise Parker
as Sarah, with Mr. Willis; Helen Mirren as Victoria in the action-comedy "Red".
Summit
The players on this funky chess board aren't too old for this rambunctiousness,
even if "Red" gets a lot of mileage out of old codger jokes. Still, it's
good to see these veteran actors collaborate and have a lot of fun together.
You may not care for the characters they play, but at least you know they are
enjoying themselves, and it shows.
Though one, Mr. Malkovich, a gifted actor, has more or less become a parody of
himself lately, you can't take your eyes off him. Whether in
"Burn After
Reading", "Secretariat" or here, his enthusiasm for playing wild, flamboyant or
eccentric characters has never waned over his career, and he still does it with
zeal.
All told, Ms. Mirren and Ms. Parker ("Solitary Man", "Weeds") are the two
reasons to see "Red", with Ms. Parker's character in particular living out a
fantasy odyssey. She is the average Joanne with moxie in a madcap world of
pandemonium, and she makes the most of her place amidst the colorful mania that
transpires.
With: Brian Cox, Julian McMahon, Rebecca Pidgeon, Ernest Borgnine, Karl Urban,
James Remar.
"Red"
is rated PG-13 by the Motion Picture
Association Of America for intense sequences of action violence and brief strong
language. The film's
running time is one hour and 51 minutes.
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