Theater Whore: Red

Last week I had to pleasure of hanging out at The Grove here in Los Angeles and seeing the newest Bruce Willis action film Red. To be completely honest, I really didn’t want to see this movie. I’d heard bad reviews from sites I respected and heard that it veered very far off from the comic book that it was based off of. After being burned by terrible comic book based films like Wanted I had decided not to waste my time or money on this film. Damn, I’m glad I was talked into seeing this.

Bruce Willis (Die Hard, The Expendables, Sixth Sense) stars as Frank Moses  a retired CIA agent who spends his free time tearing his pension checks so that he can speak to Sarah Ross played by Mary-Louise Parker (Weeds, Saved!, Romance & Cigarettes), a customer service agent who he flirts with monthly. One day a team of assassins arrive and literally Swiss cheese the hell out of his house but do not succeed on killing him. His calmness during this whole ordeal is awesome by the way.

He soon begins contacting former associates who are also retired and they get the gang back together again. Morgan Freeman (Shawshank Redemption, Wanted, The Dark Knight) is a perverted old man with an illness that will kill him. John Malkovich (Con Air, Three Musketeers, Being John Malkovich) is an former agent whose mind has been destroyed by experiments involving LSD. Helen Mirren (Gosford Park, The Queen, The Last Station) really surprised me with her betrayal of a weapons expert. The film is rounded off by great performances by Brian Cox, Ernert Borgnine, Richard Dreyfuss, and Julian McMahon.

I want to specifically point out the performance by Karl Urban (Lord Of The Rings, Bourne Supremacy, Star Trek). He plays William Cooper, the man assigned to take out Frank Moses. Urban has been in many of my favorite films but in this one he got the chance to really shine and I strongly believe that one day he will be a leading man in some really good films. His fights with Bruce Willis are brutal and include wrestling and MMA moves. How can you not like that?

This is a violent shoot ‘em up film that will make you laugh, cheer, and wish you had a group of friends this damn cool. Definitely worth seeing early in the day but not really worth full price if you know what I mean. Its good but its not mind blowing. Maybe I’m still shocked by how much shit I talked about it before seeing it. Check it out and let me know what you all think.