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G-Men of a Certain Age

There's a certain poetry to the trajectory of Bruce Willis' career. His initial transition from wise-cracking lothario in "Moonlighting" to wise-cracking action hero in "Die Hard" was lauded for bringing everyman appeal to the type of character that had - over the course of the 80s - become a cardboard cut-out. Then, as years went by, his signature smirk and ever more balding noggin' became a caricature of itself, culminating in the fourth "Die Hard" sequel ("Live Free or Die Hard") in which his beefy John McClane was virtually unrecognizable as an evolution of the original. Still, like any great star, Mr. Willis is always reliable when he plays his certain type, but he's had difficulty finding a vehicle that could recapture the mix of quips and fists that made McClane so winning in the first place (see "Cop Out" for the latest ill-advised example). In "Red" - a pitch-perfect parody of over-the-hill action heroes, based on a graphic novel - he plays a character that may be the McClane swan song we've been waiting for.

The film opens with a sweetly flirtatious phone-based relationship between Mr. Willis' Frank Moses and customer service rep, Sarah (Mary-Louise Parker). It seems Frank has had difficulty adjusting to the retired life after years as the type of Special Ops agent Mr. Willis typically plays. Frank and Sarah make a date to meet face-to-face for the first time and, of course, minutes later Frank's house is riddled with bullets. The attack forces Frank to spring into action, tracking down the men responsible for the attempted hit while, at the same time, keeping Sarah safe (she'd be a target since he's interested in her, natch) and getting his old gang back together.

And I do mean old. The film has a lot of fun with its clever premise. The title is an acronym for "Retired: Extremely Dangerous", the apparent label applied to action heroes of a certain age. The original story, by Warren Ellis and Cully Hamner, was only sixty-six pages, so writers Jon Hoeber and Erich Hoeber ("Whiteout") pad out the events with additional characters and a high-level government conspiracy. They also, apparently, pull on a slew of Hollywood favors. The "Red" cast alone is worth the price of admission.

Among Frank's old colleagues are John Malkovich, having a blast as the ultimate paranoid, Morgan Freeman, as his trusty go-to advisor, and Helen Mirren (yes, Helen Mirren!) who, after "National Treasure 2", apparently digs the action genre. Brian Cox, Karl Urban, Richard Dreyfuss and Ernest Borgnine round out this stellar cast. At the center of it all is Mr. Willis who knows how to give the screen to his costars - and has a great time sparring with Ms. Parker (also wonderful here).

The action-comedy genre isn't easy (just look at "Mr. and Mrs. Smith" for a recent failure) and it's a credit to the writers and director Robert Schwentke ("Flightplan") that they nail (and sustain) the tone throughout (of course, when you've got Helen Mirren behind a mounted machine gun how can you fail?). Sure, there are the type of rampant plotholes that you might expect from a comicbook movie, and the plot itself bogs the film down at the midpoint, and yes, there are probably two too many shoot-outs. But the film has its roots in the action genre, so that's to be expected. You know what they say about old habits...