Comic Book Movie Review: RED

Retired. Extremely. Dangerous. by Warren Ellis

     now the comic was somewhat mediocre , heavily over hyped or overrated depending on how you look at it. The movie though , its another story...

     The Movie is vastly different from the comics in plot , characters , tone , style. everything.... thank god. The movie in short was fun , feel good action fun , its Bruce Willis for fuck sakes right?

The Plot: The comic was straight and simple.. new head of CIA thinks Frank Moses knows too much despite being retired and ordered him terminatd.. Moses tracks down the new head of CIA to seek revenge. The movie however has a few more angles to it...
1) the operator in the comics is now Moses love interest and has a crush on her and pursues her as a secondary plot.
2) the hit on Moses is mysterious , its multi-layered which Moses has to slowly unravel which serves as the main plot.
3) Moses is accompanied by three associates ( the RED prequel comics introduces all 4 characters backgrounds).. many more characters in the movie version which is a good thing. They are all likeable.

 Frank and Sarah played by Mary Louise Parker whom was channelling every cliched innocent lovable damsel turned sidekick.

     The young idiot crowd complained the casting was too old and couldnt relate to anybody and probably thought EW to all the sexual ineundos made by the cast. Fucking morons. This would indeed be a great action flick for the older crowd ,and see some old farts kick some ass again.

        To say the movie went light on intensity is an understatement. The comics , the original and prequels held no prisoners nor mercy and really punched you in the face as a reader. The movie was a little predictable and formulaic once you realized that... its not as bad ass as the comics. If you never read the comics , you really think Moses is a great guy , he's actually suppose to be as ruthless and heartless and they tried to tell you in the movie but it wasnt convincing in the movies. 

     The villians are ok , could've been done better , didnt really get a hate on for anybody. For one as Moses unraveled the plot the villian became a moving target.. literally and figuratively.


     BUY IT /RENT IT/PIRATE IT/FUCK IT...

Rent. Pirate if you can , I dont think an official DVD/Blu Ray matters much , there's not that much CGI fx to really need Blu Ray. Its similar to the comic in that its not a must see but wouldnt be horrible at all if you did see it.