RED is cinema at its most entertaining. Half the magic lies in the perfect casting. Helen Mirren plays the aristocratic dame/assassin. Bruce Willis is the tough guy with the soft inside. Morgan Freeman is wise, John Malkovich is crazy and Mary-Louise Parker is ditsy. Need I say more?

In a nutshell

Someone tries to assassinate a group of retired CIA agents. They are struggling to adjust to normal life anyway and see this attack as a golden opportunity to get back into action.

Mood of the film

It is light-hearted, tongue in cheek fun.

Best one liner

John Malkovich shoots someone.

Bruce Willis asks him, “Feel better?”

Malkovich replies, “Yeah. You guys want to get pancakes?”

Best scene

One. An assassin calls the unstable John Malkovich ‘an old man’. He takes her on. She has a missile launcher, he has a pistol. Hilarity follows.

Two. Helen Mirren, dressed in a beautiful, flowing evening gown, comes down an escalator. The guard at the bottom says he will have to treat her as a threat.

“Where’s the threat?” she asks with an angelic smile. Then ‘klaps’ him one in the throat with her handbag.

Best performance

Mary-Louise Parker outshines even Dame Helen Mirren. It is a continuation of her ditsy, spaced out character in Weeds, but she does it so well, that I love the big screen version even more.

What makes this film relevant today?

It’s pure entertainment and goodness knows we need a good laugh every so often.

FYI

The first attack is lead by an independent team from South Africa!

Rotten Tomatoes Score

70%

My Score

75%