Red(2010)

Directed By: Robert Schwentke

Written By: Jon Hoeber & Erich Hoeber

Starring: Bruce Willis, Morgan Freeman, John Malkovich, Mary Louise Parker,

& Helen Mirren

Synopsis: When a retired CIA agent is suddenly a target of an assassination squad, he must 

figure out who is behind the hit, recruiting his old teammates and a government employee in the process.

WARNING:MILD SPOILERS AHEAD

Jonesy- I liked the story. I thought it took too long to get to the real problem, but in other spy movies, you always got little hints of the mystery, and I don’t feel that you got enough of the mystery to keep me focused on guessing what was wrong.  I wanted to get to the real meat of who’s trying to kill Bruce Willis.

Javier- I also really liked the story, though I didn’t care for the mystery, and I was just taking it moment by moment. This movie was probably just as funny as Get Him to the Greek, which is one of the funnier movies we’ve seen this year.  So yea, the complaints are there, but for me it doesn’t really matter because I was having such a good time. I didn’t feel there were that many issues with the pacing did you?

Jonesy- I think there were pacing issues in the beginning, but once the four main characters got together, it was great. I wanted all four to get tougher faster.  I think getting to Helen Mirren took way too long.

Javier- And it felt a little cheesy you know? I hate making the comparison, but it felt like in Mortal Kombat they were trying to get all the main characters from the video game together, like “we gotta go to this guy for a really specific reason, and only X person that is vital to the plot later on can help us with in this exact moment.” The movie had that very campy and goofy style. 

Jonesy-It’s funny because they’re old and they’re kicking ass

Javi- And they all had great chemistry.

Jonesy- I don’t think Bruce Willis’s character was as dynamic, and you never really find out much about him.  All you know is he was some ex-bad-ass-CIA dude. You find out a lot more about Freeman, Mirren, and Cox, but Willis is supposed to be the main character?  I liked Mirren the best.

Javier- I did too. Rawr.  Anyways, in terms of characters, I see what you’re saying about Willis not being dynamic.  What’s interesting is that later in the movie, the interrogation scene where Karl Urban is asking Sarah- “Do you know who Frank Moses is?”, that could’ve been a great scene where she finds out all of this messed up stuff that he did.  I kind of see what you’re saying; there could’ve been ways of showing more of his past than without exposition.  One thing I will complain is they tried to Liz Lemon-ize the Sarah character, and I know I’ve read this before.  It's where they play off an attractive woman as dorky or dumpy like the Tina Fey character in 30 Rock.  However, let’s face it, Tina Fey is gorgeous even if she acted as goofy as she did, she could get herself a guy.  That just kind of gets annoying to me.

Jonesy- I like that Sarah never shot a gun, that she helped but not in a violent way.  She was able to help in her own style, and she wasn’t a damsel in distress and wasn’t a super genius. 

Javier- Going back to the story/character thing, I thought the Brian Cox character encapsulated everything that was cool and yet wrong with this movie.  I thought it was ridiculous how he shows up in the middle of the group getting hunted down in a non-armored car and helps them escape. 

Jonesy- I also really enjoyed how Cooper (Karl Urban) was super developed. I felt more for him, and I understood his motivations more than I ever did for Bruce Willis. I understood where he was coming from, and it really should be the other way around. 

Javier- Overall, I thought it was really enjoyable, and you shouldn’t really go in expecting too much. I was excited because I wanted to see Helen Mirren with a gun, and I was not disappointed, and I was surprised at how funny and amusing the movie was.  You won’t have to say it’s a guilty pleasure, which made me like it even more because it was genuinely funny and it was well acted.  The chemistry was great, and the story was solid.  If someone was to say, hey let’s go see Red; I’d probably see it again, especially in a big group of people 

Jonesy- This is definitely a big group movie; you just have to go in expecting fun.  It’s one of the best action movies of the year.  I enjoyed it, but I still have issues with it.  I’d recommend it to anyone; it’s enough fun that most everybody could find something to like from it.  It’s very kick ass and funny and sweet…just an all around fun movie.