Red (2010)

Bruce Willis is Frank Moses, a retired CIA black-ops agent who livens up his week by ringing up pensions administration, pretending not to have received his cheque and then casually flirting with the clerk on the other end of the line. One day, some fairly intimidating men in black jump suits come to his house intent on killing him, setting Frank on the run to find out who wants him dead and how to stop them succeeding. He hooks up with Mary-Louise Parker, the afore-mentioned clerk, as well as several of his also-retired CIA buddies, including sniper Helen Mirren, lunatic John Malkovich and cancer-ridden Morgan Freeman. They track a cover-up leading to the highest levels of government and a conspiracy of silence best completed by killing them all.

*****

Red is (either as or despite what you have heard) a lot of fun. It's not going to make history, it doesn't have anything sensationally new to offer, but what it does, it does well. The plot is pretty conventional stuff and although some of the action sequences go for relatively unfurrowed ground (shooting an incoming missile, stepping out of a car as it spins out of control), it is mostly a lot of what we have often seen before. But that is no bad thing in this case. The film has a relaxed ease about it, with the main actors interacting effortlessly, performing well within their considerable acting expertise. There's a terrific punch-up between Willis and Karl Urban's rising CIA star, a very funny face-off between the retirees and Richard Dreyfuss' corrupt defence contractor and Ernest Borgnine almost walks off with the whole film as a mild-mannered CIA record keeper.

It wasn't a film that left me checking my watch, wondering when it was all going to end, it was well-paced, well-acted, well-executed and kept me entertained throughout. Of course anyone could name several similarly-themed films that are much better, but that is beside the point. Red (Retired: Extremely Dangerous) is a great watch for a Friday night, fairly forgettable in the long run and gives us Malkovich shouting, "Old man, my ass" after blowing up a rocket-launcher wielding middle-aged woman. Which is a good thing.