Red Review

What you need to know: Frank Moses is a a retired blacks ops agent, living a dull life of retirement when he is forced back into the spy game by an assassination attempt.

What you you'll love

The Cast: The cast is as star studded as they come, sometimes this can be a bad thing but it works in Red. Each heavyweight gets just enough time on screen. It's a juggling act done well.

Willis: If you're a fan of Mr. Willis then Red is the movie for you. Willis does a superb job with some very mediocre material. Every moment Willis is on the screen, Red morphs into a better movie.

Mary Louise Parker: I didn't know Parker was in the movie, she certainly wasn't a selling point on the trailers or posters. Despite this Parker steals the show, she provides the movie's only true moments of humor. The very definition of a scene stealer.


What you won't

Mindless plot: Red's plot is so mindless, so contrived that it defines comprehension. I couldn't help but think of the movie the Losers. The plot to the two movies are almost identical, yet the Losers with a small budget, and lesser know stars is everything Red tries to be and is not.

Uneven: Action comedies are tricky, you have to find the right balance. Structurally Red finds a healthy balance between its two genres. Where it struggles is in its tone. At times Red is very serious other times it's whimsical, it's not a good mix.

Over the top: To say that the use of machine guns in this movie is excessive, is to say that snow is cold. One of the first scenes in the movie has Willis' character attacked by a hit squad of roughly twenty men in the middle of suburbia. Supposedly these people live in the shadowy world of covert ops. I somehow doubt they'd open fire in the middle of the suburbs.


Bottom Line: Red is more overwrought Hollywood drivel. If you are big fans the actors involved you may find some enjoyment in Red,otherwise skip it or what for it to come to a Red box near you.

GRADE: C