Red

Release Date: October 15, 2010

Time Kate wanted to see it: When people began to recommend it to me--about the time it came out on DVD.

Reason Kate procrastinated: So many DVDs . . . so much daily living that gets in the way! And when it comes to checking DVDs off my list, I am more likely to go for television shows first, then movies--even though the movie experience can often be more satisfying. I have Mike to thank for pushing me to expand my horizons!

Category: Action-Comedy/Comic Book Adaptation (really!)

Kate says so I knew about Willis and Freeman and Malkovich and Mirren. But Karl Urban too! What a treat!!

This is a fun movie. I was already prepared to be impressed (which worried me a bit; don't want to get those hopes too high!). I wasn't prepared to be so amused and to be so amused in such an off-beat way. The humor isn't subtle so much as sideways--like Frank's house suddenly having Christmas decorations, the CIA documents with EVERYTHING blacked out, the whole meaning behind "RED."

John Malkovich.

I thought it was wise giving Willis the character-arc. Willis has a remarkable ability to down-play his own mythos. Frank is, yet isn't, McClane. He is a gentler, softer-spoken version of that particular action hero: "gooey on the inside."

And boy, Willis is aging well! I liked the May-ah, September relationship between Frank and Sarah (the actors' age difference is 9 years, not as much as I initially thought). I loved Sarah's, and Victoria's, sheer exuberance. I enjoyed the quick repartee and the fact that while Sarah is the girlfriend-who-stays-in-the-car, she isn't the whiny girlfriend-who-stays-in-the-car. She also isn't simply the means to an end. (My problem with True Lies, for instance, is that Jamie Lee Curtis, as Helen Tasker, is used to put the problem in motion, i.e. Arnold Schwarzenegger; by the end of the movie, she's more or less disappeared from the main action. Willis, on the other hand, is consistently paired with female characters who remain assets throughout the movie--even when taken hostage!)

Back to Urban: I think I was supposed to see Urban/Cooper as Frank's double which didn't really work for me. However, Urban as the ambiguous Cooper absolutely worked for me. Urban plays a good straight man, and he has that slight edge that makes his choices (good, bad, and odd) believable. This isn't The Fugitive where we really get inside Girard's head. Urban has to sell Cooper's fundamental personality in very brief shots. I think he pulls it off. (Then again, Urban could probably convince me that he was, oh, a futuristic ship's doctor. Wait, he already did that!)

Like so many of these types of movies, including The Fugitive, the ending is weaker than the premise. It IS clever but not particularly remarkable. The show isn't about the quest, however, but about the friendship, and that I completely enjoyed. There is a particular incident (which I won't give away--my reasons for not watching Serenity, basically) which upset me, but it is handled extremely well and is not entirely unexpected. And it isn't done to prove some kind of point about life or to manipulate the audience's emotions; it is done as the natural conclusion to the character's choices and personality.

Okay, sorry for being cryptic. Before I conclude, I should mention that I like the camera work for Red. I am far more aware, and more critical, of camera work in movies than in television (although I like the way NCIS scenes are cut). Action movies, especially, can so easily start to drag, yet there's this uneasy line between quick cuts and overly clever/nauseous cuts (Bourne Supremacy resides right on that line; I find it easier to watch Bourne 2 on my television than in a theater). Red is just about perfect. I rarely felt that the scenes were dragging, but at the same time, I didn't feel like an excess of coolness was being forced down my throat. And sometimes the camera work IS the joke, which is fun.

In conclusion, this movie is a tribute to Cold War classics and the larger-than-life personas that those classics spawned. It absolutely comes through!

Mike says Red was a complete surprise for me when I saw it in the theater. I didn't know what to expect, and I was deliriously happy with the outcome.

As Kate mentions, this is a FUN movie, first and foremost. Almost anything you might want to see you get. 'Why doesn't Frank just go beat the crap out of the agent?" Oh wait, that's what he's doing! Moment after moment in the movie is a sheer delight. Sarah talking with the duct tape, the underground lair in the trunk of the car. The grenade launcher in the Pig. And yes, I'm chuckling as I write this!

The chemistry of the characters is great, and the sheer amount of veteran well-known actors is astounding. This is a movie that you can tell a bunch of seasoned actors got together and said, "Let's have fun." And that's exactly what they did.

The introduction of each character is brilliant, and their respective send- offs are just as fun. As Kate mentions, however, the big reveal of the secret conspiracy is a little disappointing... and by disappointing, I mean I still don't fully get it. But, the bad guys get theirs, and the good guys get away. It's really all I needed, if not wanted.

Perhaps the most impressive thing about the movie is the way it handles its true to life balance between humor and drama. Just because we're having fun here doesn't mean that the characters can be hollow joke dispensers. Instead, they are real, believable, and complex people that see the humor of life while still fighting for what they feel is right. It's impressive feat that could have only been pulled off by the caliber of actors represented.

Red is Fun, action-packed, funny, and romantic enough to convince your wife to watch it with you (a bonus for me!). But beware, you might look at stuffed animals a little differently once you've watched it.