For whatever reason, this year has seen something of a trend in action movies; older action heroes who are betrayed and forced to reunite to get their revenge. We’ve already had “The Losers” and “The A-Team” this year to negligible results, and “The Expendables” looks to continue the theme. A trailer for Robert Schwentke’s “Red” has just come online over at Yahoo, and despite hitting a good six months after the rest of them, it looks like it’s got the potential to be far more enjoyable than any of the others.
Based on Warren Ellis’ comic book, it follows Frank Moses (Bruce Willis), a retired black-ops CIA agent who finds that his former bosses are trying to kill him. Scrambling to survive, and to protect the woman he loves (Mary Louise-Parker), he reassembles his old team (Helen Mirren, Morgan Freeman and John Malkovich, who replaced John C. Reilly in the part, and seems to be channeling his “Burn After Reading” character) for the inevitable one last job…
Despite the promising cast, which also includes Brian Cox, Karl Urban, Richard Dreyfuss, Ernest Borgnine and Julian McMahon, we hadn’t been looking forward to this one much, expecting a darker, dourer thriller. But the tone seems to be quite light and caper-esque; the opening shots of Bruce Willis alone at home are almost reminiscent of an ultra-violent version of “Up,” and any movie with Morgan Freeman in an absurd, pastel-blue Sgt. Pepper jacket punching Richard Dreyfuss in the face can’t be all bad, right? Robert Schwentke (“Flightplan,” “The Time Traveler’s Wife”) has always had more chops than the material he’s been given, and the action looks like it’ll be well-staged.
“Red” hits theaters on October 15, and we’re cautiously optimistic about it.