Counter Culture

Red

Sometimes it’s great just to walk into a cinema with no prior knolwed of the film you’re going to see. I often do this. For every dreadful clunker like Ace Ventura, Pet Detective, you find gems like Michael Clayton or Oh Brother, Where art Thou? I could have waited an hour for the latest Harry Potter episode or taken a risk with the unknown factor, Red.

This proved to be an excellent choice with a stellar cast of veteran actors; Bruce Willis Morgan Freeman, John Malkovich, Helen Mirren, and even Ernest Borgnine who isn’t dead after all.

Willis is a lonely, retired former CIA agent who sometimes tears up his pension cheques to get an excuse to talk to a pleasant girl in the call centre to whom he has taken a shine. One evening, just before Christmas, his past catches up with him as a team of assassins try to murder him.

In an effort to keep one step ahead of his pursuers, he teams up with the girl, a bunch of retired former colleagues and an old foe in order to find out who wants him dead and why.

This is one of the best chase movies for quite some time. Don’t think too much about the plot. Just strap yourself in for a fast-moving rollercoaster ride punctuated by helpful animated postcards to let you know where the action is. Oh, and Helen Mirren looks great as she coolly holds off the villains with a huge machine gun.