Everyone wants to enjoy their retirement, whether they’re noble people like a schoolteacher or a fireman, or as ruthlessly coldblooded as a black ops agent or Hillary Clinton. But some professions don’t lend themselves easily to kicking back on a fishing boat or rocking on the front porch – a fact that Bruce Willis learns the hard way in the very amusing new action-comedy “RED.”
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Willis plays Frank Moses, a former CIA analyst who was secretly the nation’s most kickass black ops agent. His need for secrecy throughout his professional career has left him with no friends and no one with whom to keep the home fires burning. But he does have a long-distance telephone flirtation with the government payroll clerk (Mary-Louise Parker) who handles his pension check, and when an army of machine-gun-toting killers comes to wipe him out at his placid suburban home, he hits the road to kidnap her by surprise.
The reason is that whoever is out to kill him is likely gunning for her as well, an assumption that proves true almost immediately and forces the pair to further hopscotch the country as Willis rounds up his three closest former RED (Retired, Extremely Dangerous) associates – a crack trio of eccentric agents played with complete joy by Morgan Freeman, Helen Mirren and especially a priceless John Malkovich – to figure out why someone’s out to kill them, and who’s behind the list of a dozen deaths that are being dispatched in quick fashion by agents led by Julian McMahon.
“RED” is adapted by Jon and Erich Hoeber from a graphic novel by Warren Ellis and Cully Hamner, and continues the tradition set by “Watchmen” of a comic book that’s clearly aimed at adults – at least, since the heroes are all retired people and none of the leads is under 50. But unlike the pretentious and damn near unwatchable film version of “Watchmen,” this movie is guaranteed fun even for teens willing to overlook the actors’ ages and enjoy four pros at the top of their game.
What’s especially gratifying about this film is the fact that it does find a way to give its stars a chance to have a hellacious amount of fun, especially with Mirren and Freeman getting to break free from their usual stately style of characters. Between this film and “Secretariat,” Malkovich continues the major second career wave he launched with his hilarious turn in 2008’s Coen Brothers triumph “Burn After Reading.”
The fun extends to performances by supporting players like Parker, who carries over the sexy-funny charm she’s honed to a fine point in “Weeds.” Brian Cox and especially Richard Dreyfuss – in easily his first good role in the 15 years since “Mr. Holland’s Opus” – burst off the screen with humorous pizazz.
And Willis is back doing what he does best, taking viewers on the kind of ride that will make them remember why they fell in love with him in the first place in “Moonlighting” and “Die Hard.” There’s no one else in Hollywood who’s able to mix superb comic timing with intense action scenes as well as him, and he owns this role from the first moment he’s onscreen.
Director Robert Schwentke (“Flightplan,” “The Time Traveler’s Wife”) ties it all together with a surprising zest that was missing from his previous films. Serving up crisp action, fun multi-dimensional characters, ace performances and non-stop twists with funny dialogue, he makes “Red” perhaps the best pure-fun movie of the year.
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