Red

My Kinda Size

The individual parts here are greater than its sum, and it pains just watching how Robert Schwentke is unable to extract the best collective performance from the strengths of his ensemble cast. While the film still worked - an action caper with huge doses of comedic elements - you'd somehow have the feeling that it lacked a certain X factor to gel together, thus a few scenes stand out strongly, while others just fizzled into mediocrity and familiar grounds already covered by very recent contemporary films such as The Losers and The A-Team. Do we need another story of another black ops team who are wronged / victims of the Agency and are planning a hit back while on the run? No.

One couldn't be faulted if the A-list cast proves to be a draw, with the likes of Bruce Willis, Morgan Freeman, Helen Mirren, Karl Urban, Mary-Louise Parker, John Malkovich, Richard Dreyfuss and Brian Cox leading the charge of mostly retired operatives who are called to arms when their ex-employer deem them too much of a threat, only to learn that these senior citizens still have much up their sleeves and still very much a force to be reckoned with. The villains don't really threaten our heroes, but their battles, often loud and involving plenty of weapons from handguns to an assault sniper rifle, gets the adrenaline pumping.

The saving grace is of course Malkovich's portrayal as a paranoid conspiracy theorist, no doubt thanks to an occupational hazard, and the character shines apart from the rest because of Malkovich's delivery. If only the rest of the film could have supported his intensity, and if the pace kept tighter rather than allowing it to drone on, this could have been more memorable than this rather forgettable, generic effort.

You can read my review of Red at movieXclusive.com by clicking on the logo below.