RED (2010)

Synopsis

Frank Moses (Bruce Willis) is a lonely guy. Eats a solitary meal at home. Exercises by himself in the basement. Doesn’t have anything to say to his neighbors. His main human contact is his periodic phone conversations with Sarah Ross (Mary-Louise Parker), an agent with Social Security in Kansas City. He tells her the replacement SSA check she sent never arrived. She promises she’ll send another. He tears up the check so he can call again. She seems to enjoy their conversations.

And you begin to hope. Maybe this is going to be a quiet, quirky, charming little June-November love story. But you know there’s a bevy of big-name actors on board. And boy, when they start arriving, they just keep coming.

But, yeah, you’ve seen this setup before. Frank is a former best-of-the-worst Black Ops guy classified as RED (retired, extremely dangerous). For reasons he can’t fathom, a gaggle of assassins come visiting and meet a predictably gruesome fate at his hands. What does Frank have to do? Well, race out to Kansas City, of course, since whoever is after him will be after anyone he might have a shine for. Faced with the failure of their initial crew, the CIA inexplicable decides to bring out a single bad guy, William Cooper (Karl Urban), to find and finish Frank at all costs.

Naturally, Sarah doesn’t initially buy Frank’s story. So he has to kidnap her. After some close calls, Sarah starts to see how she can lend a hand, and she and Frank embark on a road trip in search of clues as to why the CIA wants Frank dead. First there’s Joe Matheson (Morgan Freeman), Frank’s old mentor, now living in a nursing home. Then Marvin Boggs (John Malkovich), survivor of a 11-year CIA LSD experiment, now lying low in a Florida swamp. Then there’s retired crack assassin Vicky Winslow (Helen Mirren), whose side hustle leads her back to Frank. And oh … that’s just the start.

See It

Having so many venerable stars in a single movie is no guarantee that it will be watchable. But in this case, the screenplay by Jon and Erich Hoeber pulls you along for the ride, with action that becomes a kind of caper story at the end. It’s laden with lots of snappy dialog and oddball encounters, especially through the loopy antics of Malkovich, who is entertaining to watch every moment he’s on screen.

Sure, the plot twists aren’t all that hard to anticipate, the action scenes aren’t all that plausible, and you pretty much know who’s going to catch a bullet at the end. But the filmmakers strike silver (not quite gold) with a cast that appears to be having a blast (literally) in the making of this mindless entertainment. Bruce Willis is, well, Bruce Willis at his deadpan action hero best. Morgan Freeman is, well, his likeable and congenial Morgan Freeman self. Helen Mirren, in an offbeat role for her, nails the persona of the cold-blooded assassin with a heart of gold. Gosh, there’s even a cameo by Ernest Borgnine.

But among all this star power, who is the one who shines? Mary-Louise Parker. Her journey from intrigued phone pal, to shocked innocent, to frustrated kidnapping victim, to reluctant hanger-on, to eager co-conspirator, is a joy. She’s got a big share of the snappy dialog and a majority of the eye-rolling reactions. Worth it to watch just for her performance.

Hang on for the final frames as the filmmakers dangle the promise of a sequel. Check out RED 2 to see if they deliver.