‘Red’ revamps spy flicks, adding retirement to the mix

Rarely do you see a CIA-endorsed assassination take place in a retirement home. “Red”

Starring: Bruce Willis, Morgan Freeman, Helen Mirren

Directed by: Robert Schwentke

Summit Entertainment

Grade: B+

Rarely do you see a CIA-endorsed assassination take place in a retirement home.

Youthful, agile agents who don’t look a day over 30 dominate the idea of secret agents in pop culture. But “Red” seeks to change that by proposing a new view of a different side of being a spy: retirement.

Bruce Willis stars as Frank Moses, a retired special-ops agent who is living a boring life in a nameless suburb. His only excitement comes from ripping up his government pension checks just so he can talk to Sarah (Mary-Louise Parker), the customer service woman on the other end of the telephone, who reads romance novels and wants to travel.

That is, until a hit squad tries to assassinate him in the middle of the night. But our retiree, not to be underestimated, manages to defeat them all.

His obvious next move is to find out who is trying to kill him and why. Instead, he gets swept up in a rescue/kidnapping after he realizes the CIA will go after Sarah (they can track phones calls, it turns out) and asks, ahem. . .forces, her to come with him. Although she starts off tied up with her mouth duct-taped, in blockbuster fashion, she goes off with him.

The two journey to find the villain and track down some old friends of Frank’s: Joe (Morgan Freeman), the 80-year-old former secret agent who is now in a nursing home down south; Marvin (John Malkovich), the paranoid man who was given daily doses of LSD when he was in the CIA and now thinks each and every helicopter that appears in the sky is after him (and let’s face it, he’s usually right); and Victoria (Helen Mirren), the sharpshooter who has traded her machine guns for flower vases. Fortunately, these people are all dying to be spies again.

“Red” is based on the DC Comic of the same name, but manages to avoid the common curse comic-book movies sometimes face in which they only appeal to people who are already fans of the original. This adaptation, on the other hand, is a fun romp, and any first-time viewer should not be lost in the slightest.

As a trade-off, “Red” does at times seem somewhat derived and predictable. But, it’s a very enjoyable predictable, filled with gratuitous slow-motion action shots and perfect deadpan humor. Mirren in particular is great as the red lipstick-wearing, AK-47-bearing lover of a Russian diplomat.

At times, this movie feels like it would have been more appropriate as a summer release, as it is a popcorn movie through and through. But “Red” isn’t your average popcorn flick, for one, because of its stellar cast, but mostly because its aging spies gimmick is unique and helps it stand out among numerous other spy movies.