Watched RED. TLDR review: It's great. Will see again on the big screen whenever it opens here.
It seems like there are a lot of "small group of highly skilled military individuals are foolishly doublecrossed and antics ensue." I mean, that goes back to the '80s action formula, but we're seeing a resurgence these past 12 months. The Expendables, The Losers, The A-Team (a remake of that '80s formula), and now this. Haven't yet seen anything but RED and The Losers.
RED is pretty much better in every way than The Losers, which is the most direct competition as both are based on comics, tend to keep as much of the "comicbook reality" feel to them, and have similar plotlines. Warren Ellis is the man. His stuff works because he doesn't focus on the macho killstreak and one-liner quips exclusively; his writing is punctuated with moments of human interaction and recognizable, real-world human quirks.
Lots of big name actors, which surely has Ellis nervously feeling as though a lot is riding on the quality of his initial work, which isn't entirely fair. Sadly, Bruce Willis is the least memorable performance; he's doing Bruce Willis, and doesn't really play up the "old" aspect of a retired government operative. Stallone, Schwarzenegger, Van Damme, Kurt Russell... these are guys that are 20~25 years past their action movie prime. The point is to have someone who doesn't seem viable anymore. Willis is still benefiting from too many HGH injections to be seen as old. Ah, well. Morgan Freeman also seems like he's playing Morgan Freeman, but is at least doing the "old" part right. John Malkovich is perfect. Just perfect. Helen Mirren as well, and I would still smash that action. What a classy, lovely, compelling woman. Whomever the female lead was, I've never seen her before, but she was good. She looked like every girl I had a crush on in college, so I'm probably biased.
