Philip French 

Red – review

Red has an all-star cast coming to the rescue of former agent Bruce Willis but leaves Philip French unimpressed
  
  

red-review
Lock and load: Helen Mirren and John Malkovich in retired spy thriller Red. Photograph: Frank Masi Photograph: Frank Masi/xxx

Schwentke's poorly scripted comedy thriller asks us to believe that RED is a CIA acronym for "Retired Extremely Dangerous", applied here to a former "black ops" assassin, a characteristically smug Bruce Willis who finds himself on the run from his middle-American retirement. To help him turn the tables on his mysterious pursuers, he recruits fellow CIA retirees, among them Helen Mirren, Morgan Freeman and a crazy John Malkovich, who's either blasting the scenery or eating it. They're joined by their onetime KGB enemy, the lovable Ivan (Brian Cox), and a sentimental orgy of nostalgia for the good old days of the cold war ensues. This is painting by numbers for people who have trouble with mental arithmetic.

 

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