'RED' reviewed

From left, Bruce Willis, John Malkovich and Helen Mirren in RED. Watch the preview: http://www.moviefone.com/movie/red/10020540/main

It's been a while since I posted a new entry because I haven't seen any films in the theater since the previous posting. I've been watching a lot of DVDs that keep piling up due to good sales. I found a website that offers mostly old foreign films with low prices: http://germanwarfilms.com/index.htm The video & audio quality varies but at least I get to see classics and rare films that are sometimes not available anywhere. Like a 1935 German production of Joan of Arc. Check out my review, the second one, of Das Madchen Johanna on IMBd: http://www.imdb.com/
>>Also Barnes & Noble is currently having a half price Criterion sale so I've been stocking up on them. Maybe some day I'll post some reviews of worthwhile films.Next week we're off to Portsmouth NH for our last trip of the year and we'll see a French film which will be posted later.
>>I've been fighting a head cold for almost two weeks but I was well enough to catch last Sunday's matinee of RED. The previews promised an action comedy with good actors. Bruce Willis has grown in ability over the years. Although he made it big with the Die Hard franchise and other action films, he's not afraid to take small parts in small films that stretch his acting ability. I always knew he was going places since coming to attention in the TV series Moonlighting way back when and I plan to get the DVDs. He's a shrewd judge of picking parts in small films that get financed due to his box office clout.
>>RED is an acronym for 'Retired Extremely Dangerous.' Willis plays a retired CIA agent who becomes the target of a hit squad as well as others who were connected to a past event in South America discovered by an investigative reporter who was killed for her snooping. He enlists some former agents who help him crack the mystery.
>>And what a team of helpers. John Malkovich as a gun happy wacko.. a terminally ill Morgan Freeman who wants to go out in a blaze of glory... and the ladylike Helen Mirren who is another expert with weapons. Just watching her tote a gun is worth the price of admission. Their camaraderie after years of separation is one of the best parts of this film. Add scene stealer Brian Cox as a Russian agent who comes to their aid and you have quite a team of actors who never upstage each other. Everyone seems to understand the intent of the film as a nice combo of action and verbal & visual jokes.
>>Yeah Willis gets the crap kicked out of him in a fight with Karl Urban who played Dr. Spock in the recent Star Trek film. Damn I forgot that was him and he's good here too as their nemesis. Anyhow you know Willis always comes out the winner but this doesn't spoil your enjoyment. Throughout the story Willis uses persuasion as well as his deadly skills in assisting his friends and dispatching his enemies. He knows how to use one line zingers with good deadpan delivery.
>>If you enjoy Willis films and want to see him hold his own against some heavy hitters including Richard Dreyfuss and Ernest Borgnine who's 93 (!!), this one's for you. This sly comedy interrupted by plenty of gunfire & explosions is droll enough to keep the story moving along at a nice pace and the audience laughed in the right places. There's a few surprises and plot twists that add to the fun and I should mention two romances, one old & one new, but I'll let you find out who they are. If anything you learn from this film is, retirement isn't what you think. There's still a lot of life left in these 'old' folks.