Remember those old-school hip-hop jams? "I said a hip hop, hippie to the hippie." There was something about those songs that exuded pure goodness and relaxation. You could just chill, sit back and groove along to the music. Red is the movie version of those old-school songs. A few minutes after you sit down to watch the movie, you get drawn into a fun-filled two-hour delight that provides a wonderful break in a world of intense thrillers.
From the outside, this movie may seem like just another one of those washed-up old star-filled movies. These films tend to be downright bad. Red, though packed with old movie stars, manages to shirk most of these stereotypes. Although the movie gratuitously plays on the old age (50s-80s) of its protagonists, tons of laughs come from watching these elderly veterans outsmart specially equipped CIA covert agents. At the same time, the violence in no way overrides the other aspects of the film.Everything is kept whimsical, offering a good time to all kinds of audiences.
Red, like most movies worth watching, has highly entertaining characters. There's the ex-covert-ops retiree (Bruce Willis) who falls in love with a pension helpline operator, as well as the murderous dame masquerading as an elegant, aged woman (Hellen Mirren). John Malkovich hilariously plays the cookoo, LSD-fed homicidal maniac who walks around an airport with a stuffed, puffy, pink pig. As Morgan Freeman and Brian Cox round out this ragtag crew, brilliant plans are concocted and explosions are everywhere. Without a doubt, this group of old-timers exhibits seasoned skills that endlessly trump the futile attempts of the young and restless.
The flaws of Red rest in its pure lightheartedness, which often leads to overly cheesy scenes. At the same time, the film does not pretend to be realistic. It is based on an eponymous three-issue limited comic book series by Warren Ellis and Cully Hamner. Postcards indicating city changes, over-the-top characters and ridiculous circumstances satisfactorily keep the movie true to its comic book roots. Still, sometimes the tackiness gets to be so much that audiences may find it difficult to invest in the characters.
Nevertheless, Red far surpasses director Robert Schwentke's previous body of work (The Time Traveler's Wife, Flightplan). Red does not pretend to be something it is not - we go in expecting entertainment - and that's exactly what we receive. Overall, the movie consists of a cross between a good ol' Bruce Willis action flick and a comical superhero saga. If you dig movies where you can just kick back and laugh for a couple hours, you've found a great one in Red.
Read More
The best albums of 2014
By Noah Zeidman | December 4, 2014Across genres, it has been a pretty great year in music.
Top 10 movies of 2014
December 4, 2014This has been an excellent year for film, offering everything from gripping blockbusters to innovative personal films.
Iggy Azalea is “Reclassified”
December 4, 2014It has become common practice among music artists to repackage their albums in an effort to simultaneously boost single sales and dish out new content by slightly renaming the album or slapping “Deluxe” onto the title.
