RED

Genre: Action & Adventure, Mystery & Suspense, Comedy

Rated: PG-13
Running Time: 1 hr. 51 min.
In Theaters: Oct 15, 2010 Wide
Box Office: $43.5M
Directed By: Robert Schwentke
Written By: Erich Hoeber

Ever since Spider-Man became a break through success in the Hollywood, it seems
more and more studios have jumped on the comic book bandwagon. Throwing a
big named star in a comedic costume and dowsing the film with special effects has
resulted in million dollar revenue streams for years now, and resulted in some
pretty entertaining film making. As the big name comic book hero’s have begun to
run low, the studios and filmmakers have begun to turn to the not so well known
hero’s. Movies like The Spirit, Watchmen, and 2010’s surprisingly good Kick-Ass are
a few of the results. In that same fashion, Summit Entertainment has turned to DC
Comics cult classic RED, in hopes of another box office hit.

RED (Retired: extremely dangerous) follows retired black-ops agent Frank Moses
(Bruce Willis), after a group of government agents have been sent to assassinate
him. Being framed for an assassination, Frank, along with his former black-ops team,
Joe Mathenson (Morgan Freeman), Marvin Boggs (John Malkovich) and Victoria
(Helen Mirren) team up again for one final mission. In a cross-country journey to
uncover one of the government’s biggest conspiracy cover-ups, Frank and his team
become part of a mission that will change the face of U.S. government.

The first thing that catches your attention with RED is its star-studded cast. With
Willis, Freeman, Malkovich and Mirren comprising the lead roles, this film already
has a built in audience; smart choice considering most of the people who will see
this film have never heard of DC Comics “RED” and wont even know it was a comic
book after they leave the theater. While every member of the surprisingly strong
cast gives a solid performance, stand out portrayal goes to John Malkovich in his
performance of Marvin Boggs, an acid induced paranoid ex black-ops agent.

RED falls somewhere between action and comedy, giving the viewer a little of
everything they desire in blockbuster like this. Unfortunately, the film also runs
into some common stereotypes; a Russian character named Ivan (because every
Russian charcter is either Ivan or Borris), a main character played by a woman who
only is given a first name, a black character who dies first. Common stereotypes
that don’t really harm the film just cheapen it value to some degree. Director Robert
Schwentke (Flightplan, The Time Travelers Wife) makes his action film debut with
RED and does a fairly nice job. While the movie is nothing ground breaking, or
utterly original, it is fairly entertaining in its depiction throughout.

RED is a run-of-the-mill action film with comedy sprinkled throughout; it has a little
something for everyone to enjoy. It’s a nice alternative comic book adaptation that is
backed with a solid cast but it’s not a great film by any means. The nice thing about
RED is that it doesn’t try to hide behind itself, it’s not trying to be anything deeper
than what it is: a 9-dollar action comedy.

-Hunter Freiburg