Movies.ie

• Critic rating
• Currently 3/5 Stars.

Movies.ie Critic Review

The title is an abbreviation of Retired and Extremely Dangerous, something we realise early on when former black-ops agent Frank Moses (Willis) sees off a bunch of hitmen in the opening scenes. Along for the ride is pension administrator Sarah (Parker), the duo soon joined by other sly old CIA dogs, such as charmer Joe (Freeman), nutter Marvin (Malkovich), Ruskie florist Ivan (Cox) and, yep, GMILF, Victoria (Mirren). The rest is Grumpy Old Hitmen.

THE VERDICT: Based on Warren Ellis and Cully Hammer's somewhat darker graphic novel, this lighthearted and largely lightfooted big-screen adaptation has a lot of fun with the comedy clash of OAPs going OTT with shiny military hardware. Think Grumpy Old Hitmen, only with a few flat spots, and a surprising slither of tenderness. Everyone involved seems to be having a ball, and although there may be nothing particularly new or original going on here, there is quite a lot of fun on offer. 

Review by Paul Byrne 

• Avg User rating
• Currently 3/5 Stars.

User Reviews

• • Currently 3/5 Stars.

  pkinsella

  

  Great cast and good entertainment. Story wasnt amazing but a little different to the usual stuff that's made. Worth checking out on dvd when you dont want something too taxing.

• • Currently 3/5 Stars.

  Chad

  

  Entertaining. Expected a bit more based on the cast but still worth a watch!

• • Currently 4/5 Stars.

  Shells

  

  <3 Warren Ellis' comics. Now if they could just make a film of Next wave that would be great! Or even his novel Crooked little vein. Maybe David Lynch could direct...

• • Currently 3/5 Stars.

  hoyeean

  

• • Currently 3/5 Stars.

  ging-grr

  

  Malkovich's performance is the saving grace of this movie. Some great action sequences, but story was a little weak. Worth a look if you just want to switch your mind off for a bit but otherwise avoid.

• • Currently 2/5 Stars.

  Mr_Twist

  

  Starts off sooooo well and then nose dives into a big pile of shite lazy writing I loved this movie for 30 minutes and then... poop

• • Currently 3/5 Stars.

  mcclofsky

  

  worth seeing , better than the trailer would have u believe but still not sure whether it wants to be a little camp at times and ultra vilent at others

• • Currently 3/5 Stars.

  seamyfox

  

  Actually this was better than i thought. John Malkovich was very funny in it. Great cast (must have been very expensive). Wouldn't rush out to see it though

• • Currently 3/5 Stars.

  ste_

  

  Just enough action and laughs to keep you interested. Some really funny parts and Malkovich steals the show.

• • Currently 3/5 Stars.

  annapmurphy

  

  I really enjoyed this movie, great to see so many legends on the big screen together. John Malcovich was fantastic, he plays the crazy guy perfectly! Should be good on blu ray with lots of excellent explosions!

• • Currently 3/5 Stars.

  ArrggghhhhJOHN

  

  Not a great movie by any means but if you want a brain dead trip to the cinema to relax your over stressed brain then this will do the trick nicely.

• • Currently 4/5 Stars.

  cowzera

  

• • Currently 3/5 Stars.

  andyparhelia

  

  Decent flick, deceent amount of action and laughs - but not as much as the trailer would have you believe, with the movie being quite slow in parts. With Willis playing a fairly subdued character, dialogue-wise, it's left to Malkovich to produce the goods which he has no problem doing. Worth a look but lower your expectations somewhat.

• • Currently 4/5 Stars.

  thompsss

  

  I really liked this movie it didn't do it any harm that I got to see it free but it was definately well worth seeing. There was lots of shooting and explosions and car chases to satisfy anyones need for action without going to far. I liked the story line and it was well done. Overall it is a movie worth going to see. I highly recommend it to people.

• • Currently 3/5 Stars.

  ssconnolly

  

  When ex-CIA agent Frank Moses is targeted by a clean up squad working for the government he finds himself being thrown back into his old life of gun fights, explosions and espionage. After assembling his old team of retirees and bringing along his new love interest for the ride he sets about getting to the bottom of this conspiracy and putting it to an end before him and his team are taken out and the guilty people walk free. This year the big summer blockbusters were overall rather disappointing so I think few will oppose to fun action films like this spilling over into the cold winter months. Sure this isn't the finest film, sloppy filmmaking and a lack of focus preventing it from being as good as it could have been but it is very entertaining and acts as a nice last hurrah before we get thrown into the more serious stuff with Oscar season fast approaching. We've had a lot of films like Red this year with Knight and Day, The-A Team and The Losers just some of these fun filled action films hitting screens. And after thinking back I think Red is one of the better efforts. At times it's got that wonderfully over the top and genius absurdity of The A-Team, the comedy exploits of Scott Pilgrim and the slick styling of The Losers. The final showdown of the film was brief and unspecatuclar but still quite satisfying. Unlike the irritating end to The Losers you feel that everything is wrapped up nicely and don't feel cheated by a shameless attempt to leave things open for a sequel. The film also gives me my favourite film moment of the year in the form of a screaming John Malcovich, strapped with dynamite, chasing secret service agents down the street. That is the kind of scene that makes you wish John Malcovich could be in everything. But unfortunately at other times it brings itself down with lack of focus and some sloppy filmmaking. One big flaw lies in the premise. It's meant to be about old agents forced out of retirement for one last rogue mission. This would mean you would need old actors and old age related gags, two necessities this film has too few of. I mean Morgan Freeman is the only really seasoned actor and even he's 7 years younger then his character. Replace Willis, and Mirren (Malcovich gets a pass) with Clint Eastwood and Judi Dench and you've got a perfect cast for this film. As it is now Willis is too young to be convincing in his role and Mirren also looks a little fresh despite her age. And we never really see our characters dealing with old age and retirement which kind of makes the general premise useless and unnecessary. The films biggest failure however is undeniably the whole love interest thing which acts as the main catalyst in this films already rather flimsy plot. We're meant to believe that Willis and Parker have had this electric chemistry over the phone and that they are going to fall in love as the film progresses. But through the entire film the romance just seems awkward and stilted, not only completely unconvincing but even at times a little creepy. They have no on screen chemistry at all and Parker's character's progression is terribly done. I mean one minute she is the reluctant hostage and then out of nowhere she's heed over heels in love with Willis, defying the authorities and embracing all the danger. Its the kind of character arc that needed to happen in a film like this but it needed to be shown instead of just being applied out of the blue. The strongest point of the film has to be the cast. I'll get the only real problem with it out of the way first and that problem is Mary Louise Parker. She is terrible. It's probably not all her fault, as I mentioned previously her character isn't the best but a better actress could've rose above the material somewhat, but not her. She is completely out of her depth with all the world class actors around her and she never even comes close to showing she deserves to be there. She was annoying, dull and unconvincing. But then there were several silver linings to brighten the film up. Malcovich is amazing as always, part of this world class cast but still managing to stand out in pretty much every scene. Willis is back to what he does best, kicking ass and asking as few questions as possible. But in fairness he's played this part so many times that he was never going to mess it up now. Morgan Freeman seemed somewhat unnecessary but he still put in a fine display. And finally Helen Mirren tries something different with her assassin role. She handles all the action brilliantly, and somehow manages to retain her class in the meantime. So all in all Red is unlikely to be creeping into anyones films of the year list come January, but will ease us nicely into the impending Oscar season. It's over the top, it's fun, it's smart and most importantly it's entertaining. It's not too different from stuff we've already seen. If you weren't too happy with The A-Team, The Losers etc. then give this a miss. It's certainly a better geriatric action film than The Expendables so if you enjoyed that sit back and enjoy perhaps the last of the fun films before Black Swan and True Grit darken up our screens a bit.

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