The Plot. The story is about a retired CIA operative, Frank Moses (Bruce Willis), who leads a quiet life talking on the phone with Sarah, his pension department representative. One day Frank is attacked by a team of special ops, who he defeats with ease. Since Frank knows that whoever tried to kill him would go after his loved ones and the only one he cares about is Sarah, he goes to Seattle to rescue her. It soon becomes obvious that for some reason a lot of the old operatives are being eliminated and Frank starts contacting his old acquaintances. Together the group begins to unravel a sinister plot.
General Thoughts. This is a really fun movie and I liked it very much. I got a lot of good laughs out of this. What I liked most about this was the cast. They pretty much took the better part of Hollywood oldschool action and drama actors and put them together to form a mix of nostalgic and modern action.
The actors that took part in this were indeed the best of the old Hollywood generation. Bruce Willis has always been a serious action hero and always plays pretty much the same role, from the first Die Hard to the Sixth Sense, he's always the same. We like that and he's good at it and he's also exactly the way we like him in this one. Morgan Freeman is one of the best actors in Hollywood and also is pretty much the same he's always been - a warm, friendly old man with the hidden capability to do some serious damage. John Malkovich plays a paranoid crazy person in this one, but also stayed to the Malkovich we're used to. Then there's Helen Mirren, who we're used to seeing in drama and not in action. Seeing her handling a 50. cal heavy machine gun is quite different. While being a great action type with blazing guns and ruthlessness, she manages to keep the lady-like appearance we're used to. What all of these actors have in common? They're all quite old and seeing them in an action movie together is a little bit weird and even nostalgic, but it's still great.
When it comes to the plot, this was a pretty standard action movie with a lot of clichés but again, this was not what makes this movie so great. The same plot with a bunch of little known actors wouldn't have been this fun, so this is another one of the movies that depends strongly on the reputation of the actors. It's quite standard for an action movie have a lot of comedic value. Red can even be labeled as an action-comedy. There are loads of one-liners and other funny stuff and it's also quite amusing to see old people with moves like that.
All in all, this is a great blockbuster which mostly feeds on the fame and talent of old Hollywood stars, but at the same time actually works quite well. This one is more suitable for people who have grown up watching stars, like Bruce Willis, Morgan Freeman and John Malkovich, because for a person who is not familiar with these actors, this would seem like a simple cliché-ridden action flick. Not worth a lot as a movie, but an excellent source of nostalgia. I loved it.
6/10 Flogs
