Red (2010)

Starring: Bruce Willis, John Malkovich, Mary-Louise Parker, Morgan Freeman, Helen Mirren, Karl Urban, Richard Dreyfuss, Ernest Borgnine, and Brian Cox
Grade: B+

Based off of the lesser-known comic book mini-series, Red is the adaptation we didn’t know we wanted.

Summary

Retired CIA black ops agent Frank Moses (Willis) lives by himself in a quiet town. Every so often, he gets his pension check but acts like he didn’t get it so he can talk to the pension services call center woman Sarah Ross (Parker). Neither Frank nor Sarah knows what the other looks like, but they both enjoy the conversation, as they do this pretty often. After putting out some Christmas decorations, he calls again, telling Sarah he’ll be by her in Kansas City next week and he wants to see her. She’s hesitant but interested and tells him to call her when he’s in town. Excited, he reads some of the romance novels she’s been recommending and goes to bed. In the middle of the night, Frank wakes up instinctively and heads to the kitchen. At the same time, a hit squad breaks into his house and tries to kill him. He kills everyone on the inside and the other three assassins that come in right after, destroying his house in the process. Now, he has to head to Kansas City a bit earlier.

Following a bad date, Sarah gets into her apartment, only to find Frank in the house waiting for her. He introduces himself, and she starts freaking out because he broke in (and cleaned the apartment while he was at it). She starts to throw things at him while he explains that bad guys are after the both of them. She’s being roped in because the bad guys are aware of their phone calls between each other. Sarah is still not cooperating, even as Frank sees the bad guys from across the street. As a result, he’s forced to kidnap her, duct tape her mouth shut, and tie her hands together, beginning an unwanted road trip. Elsewhere, current CIA black ops agent William Cooper (Urban) meets with his superior after killing another target. She gives him a new target who is off the books. It’s Frank Moses, and he’s game. In Louisiana, Frank drops Sarah off at a motel and ties her to the bed. Following this, he goes to a retirement home to meet his good friend and former member of the CIA Joe Matheson (Freeman). On his flight, Cooper connects some dots by looking at Frank’s torn up check from the pension office.

Joe makes a call and finds out that an independent South African hit team may be responsible for chasing them, as they are suspected to be responsible for the death of a New York Times reporter named Stephanie Chan. Frank doesn’t know the person or understand the connection, but he tells Joe to watch out because they may be coming for him too, even though Joe isn’t worried because he’s 80 and has Stage 4 liver cancer. Just as Sarah is able to get loose to call 9-1-1, Cooper sees her activity from his laptop and where she’s at, redirecting his private flight to her location. Outside of the motel, the police are everywhere, and one cop tries to take Sarah away in his car, even though he’s secretly an agent. He injects her with some drug, but Frank is able to take the guy out before he could kidnap her. They drive away in the police car. At the same time, she starts feeling the effects of the drugs while in the passenger seat. Soon after, the car is hit by Cooper, but Frank is able to immediately get out and shoot at him, throwing him off. Eventually, Frank is able to elude him by calling in on the police radio for Cooper to be captured. At the retirement home, an assassin shows up to kill Joe.

Frank and Sarah, who trusts Frank a lot more now, head to Chinatown in New York for clues because Stephanie Chan used to live there. After Sarah convinces Frank to let her do the talking, they meet Chan’s mother who shows them a postcard she got from her the day she died. On the postcard, Frank notes that the number written on it is a call number for a book. They head to the library of her college and find the exact book they were looking for. In it is a list of people this woman investigated. They look for their names online and most of them have died. One man named Gabriel Singer (James Remar) is the only one still alive. Frank calls Joe to discuss but found out he was killed. Back at the CIA Headquarters, Cooper argues with his superior for lying and saying that Frank was just a retired analyst. She tells him to go to the back room to meet the Records Keeper, Henry (Borgnine). In this secret room unknown to most, Cooper is given the file of Frank Moses. This is where he learns that Frank was one of the most effective black ops agents the CIA has ever had. He retired because he got old. Then, someone tagged him “Red (Retired Extremely Dangerous)”. Frank and Sarah head to Florida to find another retired agent in Marvin Boggs (Malkovich) who is said to have died two years previously. They find the unhinged Marvin in a swamp-like area. They go into his underground dwelling to see what he knows about the mission Chan was investigating.

After looking through some files, he finds a mission from 1981 in Guatemala. Five of the guys on Chan’s list were there, not including Frank, Marvin, and Joe. The mission was destroying some village, killing civilians along with it, and making it look like it never happened. Sarah tells him this Gabriel Singer is the only one on the list still alive, so they decide to head out.

Marvin brings his stuffed pig with him too because it’s his signature.

As Sarah is using the payphone, Marvin suggests to Frank that they get rid of her, but Frank refuses because he likes her. Marvin is still concerned they’ve traced the phone call, but he’s distracted by a helicopter flying by, taking down the numbers on it. Now finished with the phone call, Sarah heads back over to tell them Singer will be mobile tomorrow, and they can catch him at the airfreight terminal. They head to Alabama. At the airport, Marvin almost kills some random lady because he thought she was an agent tailing them. Soon after, they find Singer and force him into conversation at gunpoint. He explains his part in the mission. Apparently, he had to fly some CIA guy out there in the middle of the night that Frank and Marvin do remember. The guy picked up a “package” that was actually a human being. Marvin interrupts after seeing the same helicopter from earlier and confirming it with what he wrote down. Immediately after, Singer is shot from the guys on said helicopter. The whole place gets shot up because they are a group sent in by Cooper. Frank, Marvin, and Sarah run and are chased by assassins all over the place, prompting Marvin to open the stuffed pig because it contains a grenade launcher. After Frank uses it, they continue this shootout, only to run into the lady at the airport that Marvin thought worked for the CIA.

Turns out, he was right.

Once he kills her, the three are able to escape. Now, they come to the realization they need some serious help, and serious help they will get.

My Thoughts:

Red isn’t a game changer in story or execution, but it’s a fun action comedy that holds up well in the genre it occupies.

Though it’s a lot less serious than its comic book counterpart, I can’t help but think that this light-hearted take on the material helped its success. How many times have we seen the “I’m retired, but they want me dead. Now, I have to come out of retirement to kill everyone” story? Let’s be honest, we see it once a month, right? Why should Red be any different? Well, it starts with the humor. It’s well-balanced with the action and compliments the overall tone nicely, letting us have an overall fun time. There’s a lot of shootouts and awesome action, but it doesn’t overtake the fun vibe of the story. In addition, the action is very solid and believable, even with the age of the cast, and it’s not overdone at the expense of the narrative. I was still invested in the amusing story, with the action being more of a great sidepiece to keep the energy up. Honestly, this is how it should be in an action comedy like this.

Another major positive is the cast. Bruce Willis was the right choice to play protagonist Frank Moses. He’s a great leader and plays the retired, unemotional black ops agent well. A lot of Bruce’s acting revolves around that same expression he has, but it fits with the type of character he’s playing here. He’s lived a life where he is supposed to be ready to kill at any given moment and having no qualms about giving or taking beat downs. It has become his natural instinct. Also, the character of Frank Moses needs to have years of experience behind him but still look good enough to make it believable he can take out younger agents in their primes. Bruce Willis does exactly that. In regard to his “same expression”, I don’t mean it as a knock on his acting by the way. It’s just that this facial expression is one Willis is known for and if you’ve seen enough of his movies, you know exactly the face I’m talking about. Despite this, we still see Bruce’s charisma and low-key comedic ability show in all the right moments as he interacts with the excitable Mary-Louise Parker and the unstable John Malkovich. Seeing the killer in Frank try to take a few steps back and handle flirting with Sarah gave us a lot of funny moments, especially since he had to kidnap her when they finally meet in person. After something like this, Frank has to deal with a real uphill battle in making this girl fall for him, and we’re excited to see how he does it. Honestly, he handled the humor of it all very well and still managed to retain his action hero persona at the same time.

Switching from violent killer to apologetic and misunderstood nice guy in front of Parker’s Sarah is tough business, but Willis does it admirably. We can’t help but like good ol’ Frank Moses.

Because of the light-hearted tone, when Frank gets serious, you’re locked in. As an action hero fan, you’re waiting for that moment for Bruce Willis to go “full Bruce Willis”, even with all the comedy, and he hits us with it several times to make things very exciting. At the same time, it shows us how badass Frank Moses is. Remember, this is a character we’re not familiar with. At most, we just know Bruce Willis is playing the dude, and he can fight, but as we learn more about him from others and watching him in action, it’s not “Bruce Willis in an action movie” anymore. It becomes “Frank Moses in Red“, and it’s damn good. This man does it all when provoked. He breaks into CIA headquarters, kidnaps the Vice President, and welcomes the entire U.S. government to come after him, telling them his plans at times too. The coolest part had to have been when we see get to see how ruthless Frank can be, giving us an idea of how he was in his prime. This is of course when Sarah is captured and put into interrogation, so Frank calls Cooper directly and stays on the line, knowing the CIA will track the phone call. Then, Cooper realizes Frank is standing in Cooper’s house, staring out the window at his family outside! For the first time, we see what Frank is really about. He’s more than just a man who’s ready for a gunfight. Here, we find out that he wants the smoke too! It doesn’t matter who you are, if you hurt someone he loves, he’ll do the same to you, only worse. To finish off the phone call, he straight-up tells Cooper he’s going to kill the VP! What?!

This is one badass motherfucker! There’s no way else to put it.

This is how you make your mark and tell the audience exactly who you are and who you can be!

What’s cool about this is that it’s a villainous action but when Frank does it, it comes off as a badass thing for our hero to do since his girl is in trouble. At the same time, we see Cooper and feel a bit for him. Though he’s one of the antagonists of this story, Karl Urban’s character isn’t a straight mercenary like how he was in The Bourne Supremacy. Yes, his job is to kill his target, but we learn a lot about him and get instances of him doing the right thing like when he flips out at someone shooting at Alexander Dunning’s (Dreyfuss) log cabin when he promised Frank no one was going to be shot, or his promise of not touching Sarah once he found out his family was in danger. He’s sincere when he says this stuff, and we believe him. As you see, once Frank gets serious in these moments in the film, it does wonders for both characters, giving layers of depth to both men.

Red gets off to a nice start, but things really start to pick up once Marvin is introduced. A crackpot character is always welcomed in an ensemble movie, but I loved the backstory here more than ever. Not only is Marvin a retired agent as well but the CIA used to do mind control treatment on him, giving him daily LSD dosages for eleven years. Now THAT is a great reason for someone to be unbalanced! When you add onto his constant paranoia about the government coming to get him and using that as a reason to have a decoy house, it makes for a superbly entertaining character. He’s actually intelligent too. Though they play off his crazy energy a lot throughout the film, he’s proven right about his paranoia on many occasions. Not only does it get funnier and funnier, but it endears us to the Marvin character as time goes on. The character is a major asset to the group, and John Malkovich is an incredible asset to the movie. He’s the most entertaining part of Red and steals almost every scene he’s in. This movie doesn’t work nearly as well without him. Anytime he flips out on someone with his gun, you can’t help but cackle. I loved that scene at the airport when he suspected the random woman of following them. It shows us several aspects of who he is as a person. He has no trouble going to battle with anyone whatsoever, he has a quicker fuse than Frank and is much less trusting of anyone in the film (which bodes well for them because someone needs to be this person, and it fits his character the most), and he’s right more often than people would like to admit.

He plays off of Willis, Parker, and eventually Helen Mirren very well. I’d argue this movie still would’ve worked had it been a buddy comedy with Bruce Willis and Malkovich alone. This is how great these two are together.

Lucky for us, this film is loaded with stars.

Mary-Louise Parker plays the love interest in Sarah. She’s bored with her rather tedious life and is in dire need of excitement. Though she’s forced into this situation by Frank, seeing her start to enjoy herself as time goes on is a nice added bonus to the main story. Is she really needed for any of the missions following her inclusion? Not really, but I like to think that Frank saw how much she was enjoying the excitement of it all and this is why he includes her, even though he knows how much of a risk she is. This is something played with more in Red 2 though, once they are in full relationship mode. The only reason I bring it up here is because the major instance of it happening is when they break into CIA Headquarters. She wasn’t needed at all during the mission. There was nothing that happened that Frank couldn’t have handled by himself. He could’ve put in his own eye contact in the elevator, and he could’ve found another way to escape the scene, even though her finding the fireman to “help” him made things easier. Hell, at one point she just waits in the break room.

Anyway, she played off the craziness of the movie well and when she stops playing “frantic woman” and slowly becomes the love interest that likes the life Frank lives, the movie starts to take shape at a quick pace. Morgan Freeman is a nice addition, but I’ll admit his character is eerily similar to his characters in Going in Style, The Maiden Heist, and Last Vegas. This time though, they give him a CIA background and hand him a gun. He doesn’t offer a lot, but he does fit with the crew nicely. Helen Mirren was the real treat! Seeing her as this badass contract killer is so out of place on paper, but you can tell she’s having a ball doing something this different. This is a role so unlike her, and it’s fun seeing Mirren inject new life into her career by playing a role that to my knowledge, she hasn’t really done before. Today, we see her in the Fast and Furious sequels and think nothing of it, but Red was the movie that started this “new era” version of Mirren.

When they were casting, they probably thought, “Who is the last person you’d see with a gun?”. They probably landed on Helen Mirren and Judi Dench and decided to pick Mirren because she was a bit younger. Of course, this is pure speculation but that’s who I would think of when approached with a question like that.

I’m so glad Mirren was picked though. She was funny, at times sweet, and a total all-around badass. I love how she was all motherly with Frank when she patches up his bullet wound, and they talk about retired life. He wonders how she’s able to let loose and she responds with how much she loves the retired life, though admitting shortly after that she still takes a contract every now and again because it’s hard for someone to change overnight. It’s comical watching them talk so nonchalantly about their careers like they worked in an office and just retired, despite them both talking about killing for a living. Another funny example of this was Ivan (Cox) tells Frank in a sad voice that he hasn’t “killed anyone in years” and Frank replying sympathetically with, “That’s sad”. Little stuff like this makes me chuckle, but I digress.

Not for one second was I taken out of the movie thinking it was odd that Helen Mirren of all people is a killer. She played it with total conviction and a subtle ferocity that comes out at the perfect moments. I loved her in this supporting role and her on/off relationship with Ivan was much more entertaining than it had business being. Even though it didn’t seem all that important at first, I found myself thoroughly enjoying it by the end of the movie. It really made this team that Frank brings together feel more complete. Rounding out the cast is the aforementioned Karl Urban, who plays a very formidable foe for Frank. He plays the young and hungry agent well. He’s got an intimidating look, and they build him up well throughout the film, making us salivate as we wait for the two to square off throughout. The best scene in the whole movie had to be the fist fight between the two following Frank miraculously breaking into CIA headquarters.

Think about this for a second…

When Frank breaks in, he goes straight to the Records Keeper in Henry and gets the Guatemala file he needs from that specific mission in 1981. He could’ve left right after this without a trace, since he got in there so easily. However, after hearing from Henry that Cooper came in there to get his file to see what he was dealing with, Frank busts into Cooper’s office to fight him one-on-one. Frank Moses is fucking awesome. He’s wanted by the entire U.S. government and not only breaks into CIA headquarters of all places but goes out of his way to fight the guy assigned to kill him right in his office! Even if the fight isn’t a definitive end, Frank wins the battle and escapes. He walked into his turf, beat the hell out of him, and left. That is next-level badass! It’s just two egos waging war because they both want each other gone. At the same time, they are bringing out the best in each other. Even so, we can see it bothers Cooper more because he’s in the prime of his life and hasn’t had any trouble with any of his targets until Frank. I loved watching him get frustrated at the mind games, the beat downs, and the chases. He’s never been messed with like this, and it takes a toll on him, not knowing how to react with this impressive of an opponent. It was really cool to watch, and Urban did a great job at winning me over in the role. Richard Dreyfuss was a nice surprise too. He did a phenomenal job at reminding me how annoying he can be with that whiny ass voice of his.

Along with some good shootouts and fun action sequences like when Frank steps out of a moving car while drifting to shoot at Cooper, or Marvin hitting a grenade back at a bad guy with the back of his gun like a bat, Red is a surprisingly good action comedy that though may not do anything too different from similarly-themed movies, it does well on its own because of a great cast of characters, humor, and plenty of exciting moments. Sure, I do wish that it did a little more to shake things up, but it does a pretty solid job in terms of entertainment value.

When you add in an unexpectedly funny ending (the favor in Moldova) to cap it all off, Red reminds viewers that there’s still plenty of fight left in these old dogs.

Fun Fact: John C. Reilly was originally set to play the role of Marvin. After watching this film, I can agree that Reilly would’ve been able to play crazy, but I don’t think he would’ve played it as violently well as Malkovich did. Plus, the action suited him much better.