Red

It takes a large suspension of disbelief in order to enjoy Red. Fortunately, the film is a comedy that doesn't allow itself to be taken seriously for a single second. It makes it much easier for the audience to just go down the bizarre path the movie wants to take us. If the screenplay had even tried to ask us to believe what we were seeing, the end result would have been disastrous.

It's a good thing that director Robert Schwentke (The Time Traveler's Wife) knows this, and simply focused on making a fun, energetic action comedy that is filled with a lot of very funny one-liners, and a game cast that understands the material. The film's cast is impressive. Bruce Willis, Morgan Freeman, John Malkovich, Brian Cox, and Helen Mirren play the heroes - Retired CIA agents who are called back into action. (The title, Red, stands for Retired: Extremely Dangerous). Mary-Louise Parker is the much younger female lead. Even Ernest Borgnine and Richard Dreyfus show up in minor roles. With all this talent in one movie, it's sometimes too easy for the film to get overloaded, or neglect their talents. Surprisingly, this never happens here. Everyone seems to be having the time of their lives, and that fun carries through to the audience. Best of all, despite the goofy material, none of the big name stars come across as if they are slumming it or cashing a paycheck. They sell this stuff, and it works.

I suppose there will be some inevitable comparisons to The Expendables, since both films deal with "over the hill" action heroes. The obvious difference is that Stallone's film rode solely on its cast, while this film has genuine wit and charm. It kicks off with ex-CIA operative Frank Morse (Willis) trying to adjust to retirement, and getting whatever satisfaction he can by phone flirting with Sarah (Parker), who is the claims officer that handles his pension checks. Just when Frank thinks he's going to die of boredom, some hit men break into his house late one night and perform a botched attempt on his life. Frank escapes, realizes that he's no longer safe and someone wants him dead, and forces Sarah to go along for the ride, since she got dragged into it all when their phone conversations became tapped. With the ruthless young CIA agent William Cooper (Keith Urban) on their trail, Frank is forced to drag his former teammates out of retirement if he or Sarah want any chance to survive or find out the truth.

Given that Red is based on a graphic novel, it's not surprising that Frank's team is comprised of characters that are written in broad, exaggerated strokes. Joe (Freeman) is the soft-spoken one who still has what it takes, even if he has Stage 4 liver cancer. Marvin (Malkovich) is a paranoid conspiracy nut with survival skills. Victoria (Mirren) is a classy British matriarch who is handy with a sniper rifle or assault weapon. Finally, Ivan (Cox) is a KGB agent who fills the usual Russian cliches. (He drinks a lot of vodka, and his name is Ivan.) The plot they uncover is a tangled mess of blackmail, backstabbings, and betrayals that reach to the highest form of the government. But seriously, the plot begs not to be followed. It's convoluted, and not as much fun as the actors working their way through it. Willis brings a dry comic edge that was missing in his last comedy, Cop Out, Freeman is as smooth and likable as always, Malkovich is put to much better use here than he was in last week's Secretariat, and gets some of the biggest laughs in the film, and Mirren looks surprisingly badass blowing villains away with an automatic gun.

Speaking of guns, this is another movie where the villains can't seem to make a clear shot unless the screenplay requires it, and the heroes never miss. Usually this bugs me, but in a movie as goofy as this, I found it easier to accept. (Just like I was able to accept the fact that no one in the neighborhood heard anything when Frank's suburban home becomes a literal war zone early on.) I was able to go along with it, because the film's energy is just so high and fun. I knew it made no sense, and I didn't care. The movie succeeds at not just being disposable entertainment, but at also being a comedy that is genuinely funny. There's a lot of lines of dialogue to look out for. The plot and the action may be on autopilot, but at least the humor is strong throughout.

Those who enjoy picking movies apart are not going to get a lot out of Red. This wasn't made for those people anyway. The movie worked for me, at least, and I can see it being a crowd pleaser. It's fun, it's silly, it's energetic, and it succeeds at what it wants to be. That may not sound like much, but you have to remember, there are a lot of movies out there that don't even know what they want to be, or who they want to be for. Red is a movie that gets it right early on, and stays on the path to the end.

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