RED is an acronym for Retired Extremely Dangerous. Bruce Willis is a retired special ops CIA who is called back into action to find out why he is suddenly a target to be killed himself. Mary-Louise Parker plays his girlfriend, and she is responsible for much of the comic relief in this farce, although the whole premise is cliched and comical.
That is if you get a big kick out of gratuitous violence as recreation. The variation here is that the good guys are seniors. I was attracted to this movie by the stellar cast. But this is sort of like saying you read Playboy for the articles:) Morgan Freeman, Helen Mirren, and John Malkovich are the team of retired cronies that Willis recruits. Richard Dreyfuss also plays a role.
So what are all these good players doing in this kind of movie? Having fun working and drawing a big paycheck no doubt. This is an extremely cynical movie based on a graphic novel, ie, comic book. It doesn't hurt that all the aging boomers will enjoy a little wish fulfillment watching these folks. Big demographic still worth pandering to...and the younger crowd will come along for the general mayhem which is appealing to them no matter who dishes it out.
John Malkovich as a paranoid burn-out who has taken way to much LSD for way too long is especially amusing. Truly there is no shortage of amusement here; it is like a night at a summer carnival.
So here are all these heavyweight Thespians playing comic book characters who shoot a lot of automatic weapons. It is all played with style, panache, and thoroughly tongue-in-cheek. Ha Ha.
So that's why they call this kind of thing a guilty pleasure. It was fun, it was funny, it was exciting. Was I being manipulated? Oh yes by that very expensive whore, Hollywood. Do we eat ice cream when we want to lose weight? Duh:) Just let's not make it a steady diet, OK? And besides, its all Maya anyway, right?
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