Red is an action comedy film that was released in 2010 starring Bruce Willis. It is rated PG-13.
Frank Moses (Bruce Willis) is a retired CIA operative. He keeps his nice suburban home neat an orderly, rises at 6:00 exactly without the need for an alarm clock, and oh yeah, he's pretty lonely. That's why he calls customer support at the company that handles his pension check. He likes to talk to one of their representatives, Sarah (Mary-Louise Parker) and feels a connection with her.
Home Alone? I Think Not!
Everything is quiet and normal until one night a squad of mercenaries attack him in his home. He manages to kill them and get away. His experience tells him that his phone was probably tapped and they are aware of his relationship, no matter how fragile, with Sarah, so he heads to Kansas City to protect her. Once there he breaks into her apartment and waits for her. When she comes home he introduces himself and she thinks he is some kind of stalker. In order to remove her to safety he drugs her and takes her away in his car. They go to find his former friend and mentor Joe Black (Morgan Freeman) who is stuck away in a retirement home waiting to die from terminal cancer. When they get there they find that he has apparently been killed but they find a clue that points them to a news reporter who had apparently been killed by the same people that has attacked Frank. During this time a young CIA officer named William Cooper is assigned the task of taking out Frank, though he is told that Frank is a former analyst, not that he is an experienced agent.
Gotta Love a Woman With a Grenade Launcher
Frank, Sarah, and Joe follow leads left behind by the reporter. This leads them to find Marvin (John Malkovich), another retired operative who is hiding out in a bunker with a stash of documents from the past. He helps them to realize that there is that the list they've found is that of all of the people involved in a secret operation in Guatemala back in 1981. Besides Frank and Joe, only one person on the list is still alive, Gabriel Singer. The find him and he tells them that the mission involved an extraction, that is removing someone from a village, and that everyone involved is being killed as a precautionary measure against future leaks. Singer is then assassinated by a sniper in a helicopter. As they make their escape there is one scene where Marvin faces off against a female assassin with a grenade launcher. As the grenade leaves the launcher, he fires a single bullet that detonates the grenade right in front of the woman, killing her instantly.
Frank and Sarah go to the CIA headquarters in Langley, Virgina with the intention of finding out more about the mission to Guatemala. With some help from a Russian diplomat/spy named Ivan they find a way to get in. Frank leaves Sarah in the cafeteria and goes to the archives where he is helped by an old agent who remembers Frank from the old days. As we look at the file we see that RED stands for "Retired and Extremely Dangerous". He gives Frank the file he wants and Frank leaves, looking for Cooper. He finds him in his office and they fight hand to hand, destroying the office. As Frank runs out Cooper manages to hit him with a round from his pistol. Frank rounds up Sarah and they escape by setting off an explosion and get away in the confusion. Joe joins the group at this time, revealing that he had survived the attempt on his life.
Another Home Invasion
Frank needs some medical help so they go to meet with Victoria (Helen Mirren) who was formerly an assassin herself. She is pretty bored with her life so she joins the team after patching Frank up. When they study the file from the CIA archives they realize that there was another man involved in the extraction whose name was not on the list, Alexander Dunning (Richard Dreyfuss). Knowing that he must have something to do with this, they go to his home in the country. Leaving Victoria and Sarah in the woods (Victoria with a sniper rifle to cover them) they enter the house to talk with Dunning. They pretend to be arms buyers and Dunning leads them into a private room. They subdue him and force him to tell them what is going on. He tells them that the person extracted from the village in Guatemala is none other than Vice President Robert Stanton, who back then had suffered a mental breakdown and had massacred the entire village. It became obvious to them that Stanton was trying to cover his tracks so that he could safely run for President. Victoria reports to Frank that Cooper had arrived with FBI agents, surrounding the house. Cooper calls Frank and tries to get him to surrender. Frank tells him about the Vice President and tries to get him to question his loyalty to the government. Joe, dying of cancer, volunteers to leave the house dressed as Frank. As soon as he steps outside he is gunned down, even though Cooper had told everyone to hold their fire. In the resulting turmoil, Frank and Marvin escape and meet up with Victoria. Unfortunately, Sarah had been captured by the CIA.
Frank calls Cooper from his own house while his wife and kids are outside. He tells Cooper that he is to protect Sarah from the CIA and others who may consider her to be expendable. He also tells him that he is going after the Vice President. Cooper goes to Chicago to the Vice President's fundraiser to protect him from Frank and his team. Frank and the other manage to kidnap the Vice President anyway, despite the best efforts of Cooper and the Secret Service to prevent it. In the process of escaping the hotel Victoria is shot but Ivan, the Russian spy who is still in love with her from many years ago, comes to her rescue. The tell Cooper that they will exchange Stanton for Sarah in a place of their choosing.
Showdown at the So-So Corral
When Cooper, Dunning, and Cooper's handler Cynthia show up, they are confronted by Frank holding a gun to Stanton's head. Dunning uses Sarah to convince Frank to allow Cooper to place handcuffs on him. Then Dunning admits that he is the mastermind behind killing everyone on the list with the idea of getting Stanton elected President, therefore guaranteeing his company making a lot of money through defense contracts. Stanton is just a puppet that does what Dunning tells him to do. Dunning tells Cooper to kill Frank and Sarah and his career will take off. Instead Cooper, who is disgusted by what he's heard, gives Frank the key to his handcuffs and pulls his weapon and shoots Cynthia who was in on the whole plan to begin with. Dunning's bodyguards pull their weapons but Marvin and Victoria, who had been hidden in the building, fire first, killing both of them quickly. Frank frees his hands and crushes Dunning's throat with one quick move. Dunning falls to the floor and dies but Marvin places a bullet into his head just to be sure. Cooper watches on as everyone leaves him behind with the mess.
As a favor to Ivan, who had helped them so much with their mission, Frank and the others agree to help with a problem in Moldova. Apparently some nuclear material had gone missing and they were to recover it. The closing scenes of the movie show Frank pushing Marvin (wearing a dress!) in a wheelbarrow while being chased by members of the Moldovan army.
My Recommendation
This is not Willis' best film but he does continue his typical "quiet guy with a sense of humor and a streak of violence". While not as good as "Die Hard" this film is definitely better than "Cop Out". The cast was diverse and quite good. John Malkovich as Marvin almost stole the show. He was funny, paranoid, and maniacal at the same time. Mary Louise-Parker did a good job but her neurotic character was not as bold nor interesting as the others were. Helen Mirren, known more for her dignified roles, was refreshingly human (and very homicidal) in "Red". Morgan Freeman's role was short-lived but its always nice to see him in a film.
The story line is okay but didn't really keep me guessing. But then again, maybe it wasn't supposed to. If you enjoy action comedies the way I do they don't have to be spectacular in the plot department as long as the one-liners are funny and the action is fast and furious. Its also fun to watch the older spies kick the butts of the young guys, especially in the fight scene between Frank and Cooper.
I say go ahead and watch it. The movie delivers both fun and violence in equal portions but never gets gory or over the top regarding the dialogue. The pace is easy to keep up with and the actors worked well together. I wish I could have been there during filming as I bet it was a blast for all involved.
For real recommendations on movies you would like to see, check out Movie Crasher - Movie/DVD Reviews today. Howard is a movie fanatic and enjoys watching action movies, romantic comedies, comedies, family movies, and holiday movies. Look for more action movie reviews on his site. You can also see film photos on his original movie review of "Red".
