Red – Review
by john on Feb.28, 2011, under Reviews
Those first twenty minutes of a movie are so crucial to your enjoyment of it. Many moons ago I was lecturing some friends on the awesomeness of The Hurt Locker. A topic I assumed had plenty of support. “Meh,” they both said. “It wasn’t that great.” A double facepalm later, I built my case, scene by scene, on why they were undeniably, irrefutably, wrong. Their defense was a simple, “I just couldn’t get into it.”
And so goes Red.
Before watching, I knew virtually nothing about this movie. Based on a graphic novel, bits were shown at Comic Con to huge raves. There was a crappy showing at the box office, and it eventually showed up on some “Best Movie Nobody Saw” lists at the end of the year. Netflix even had it listed over 4 stars. All of that immediately put me into “well I gotta check this out” mode. (Note: I also get into that mode whenever I hear, “We have this new brew on tap.”)
Red is basically about Bruce Willis being a retired bad-ass, Mary-Louise Parker being the mousy girl on a new adventure, and John Malkovich, well, being John Malkovich (Long way for that joke, sorry). Morgan Freeman and Helen Mirren have big roles, too. Plus a few of those actors who make you say, “oh hey, that guy.” There’s some CIA/NSA stuff going down and lots of things blow up. John Malkovich acts insane. All good things, but I just couldn’t get into it. Maybe you’ll like it. If you do, let me know.
Grade: C-
