MyRating: YY1/2Director: Robert Schwentke
Cast: Bruce Willis, Morgan Freeman, John Malkovich, Mary-Louise Parker, Hellen Mirren, Karl Urban, Julian McMahon, Ernest Borgnine, Richard Dreyfuss, Brian Cox
MPAA: Rated PG-13 for intense sequences of action violence and brief strong language
An action comedy based on the D.C. Comics graphic novels created by Warren Ellis and Cully Hamner. Bruce Willis is Frank Moses, a retired CIA top agent, whose quiet retirement life is suddenly disrupted, when he is hunted for kill by the Agency, lead by the CIA agent William Cooper (Urban), due to the secrets he knows in the past. Realizing the situation he is in that will not only endanger his life, but also the people he knows and contacts, Frank has to save Sarah Ross (Parker), a customer service agent working for Frank's pension office in Kansas City, who is accidentally dragged into his situation. As Frank frequenly chats and flirts with Sarah on the phone to fill his spare time and loneliness, this will automatically put Sarah as the hit target.
But Frank is apparently not the only one being hunted. His fellow retired top agents, Joe Matheson (Freeman), Marvin Boggs (Malkovich) and Victoria (Mirren) are also on the list, as they are all being framed for assassination. Together they team up to fight back and embark on a cross country mission to break into the top-secret CIA headquarters and to end the conspiracies. Using their experiences, tactical combat skills, and teamwork, the team prove to be as deadlier as the pursuers, as they are RED - Retired, Extremely Dangerous.
There was so many excitements revolving around this movie due to its top rated and high profile stars. Bruce Willis back to action, plus Academy Awards' winners and nominators Morgan Freeman, Hellen Mirren and John Malkovich., all in one screen. A dream cast and a dream team. It was a fun movie as it was supposed to be with these abundant stars. The movie started very promising as the story introduced Bruce Willis's lonely character and the actions he was soon to be involved. The characters were also interesting. But somehow as the story progressed, the story started to loss its gripping anfd interest for me. At some points of time, I even think that the story felt stagnant and a bit boring.
The thing that kept my interest on was actually the stars, who were indeed fun to watch. Mary-Louise Parker played her character very well, that made her Sarah Ross character to become very lovable for the audiences. John Malkovich was great and hilarious as the paranoid ex-agent, whose craziness and brilliantness were seemed to be in a very thin line. Morgan Freeman and Hellen Mirren also shared the fun times together. And Bruce Willis was cool in his role, as this is the role and zone that suited him fine. While Karl Urban also gave a decent performance as the hunter, to share the same screen with all those big names.
There were quite many actions, but no really spectacular ones, as most of the actions were packed with comedy. So, do not expect very serious actions, but do expect some over-the-top comedy actions. The most fun one for me was the scene where Bruce Willis and Karl Urban has to fight and struggle with each other in the office. That was a good one.
This movie is worth to watch for its stellar casts. It was fun, and I know many people loved this movie, but still not fun enough for me, as I think the story could have been better. (MJ)
