Old Habits Die Hard

They lead quiet lives now, living in the suburbs, minding their own business, falling in love.... They shoot the breeze, keep to themselves, garden and bake. They are...RED, though – “Retired and Extremely Dangerous.”

Who would have thought that a movie about retired spies (i.e., old people, albeit badass old people) would be so much fun, but that’s precisely what RED is.

And I likey.

An adaptation of a popular graphic novel, the movie follows the back-in-the-saddle city-hopping, say, exploits of a group of former black-ops CIA agents who band together to take the company down after it tries to 86 them.

The group is led by Bruce Willis’ Frank, a quiet fellow who spends his doldrums post-CIA time engaging in some regular innocent-yet-serious phone flirtation with Sarah, a government-agency clerk played by Mary-Louise Parker (she sends him his pension checks, he rips them up so he can call and ask for them; it’s all oh-so-cute).

When an armed-to-the-teeth comes a-knockin’ at Frank’s door, though, excitement re-enters his life. And then it knocks down his house. Literally.

Determined to find out who’s after him and why, he hits the road, picking up Sarah along the way since her life he has now unwittingly put in danger.

The banter that Willis and Parker engage in on their unusual first date is fantastic, especially because the actress is the perfect choice to deliver the perfect deadpan mix of dread and I-will-follow-him-wherever-he-may-go-ness.

On by one Frank seeks out a handful of former associates, including Joe (Morgan Freeman), a terminally ill coot living in a retirement community; Marvin (the riotous John Malkovich), a paranoid recluse; a Russian frenemy named Ivan (Brian Cox), and the oh-so-Martha Stewart-esque Brit Victoria (Helen Mirren).

Using their collective experience, cunning, and ability with guns (and mixing humor with action winningly – good job, RED), Frank and the group must figure out what’s going on double-fast to stay ahead of the task force that’s after them and convince the agent leading the hunt (Star Trek’s Karl Urban) that they are the good guys.

Look, RED isn’t a great movie. It’s got a mild case of cliché, but honestly, it’s really quite entertaining.

And you know what, to see this Academy-approved cast shoot ’em up, well...that’s just swell.

My Rating ***

Photo: Summit Entertainment.