RED

Retired, but Extremely Dangerous – put Bruce Willis in a movie named that and you are definitely looking at wolf-whistling time. And the movie RED tries not to disappoint you, especially in the opening minutes. (If you cant make out by now, I am a ‘die-hard’ Bruce Willis fan). The movie opens with Frank Moses (Bruce Willis) leading a dull retired life in the suburbs alone. And his only excitement is the politely flirting with an employee of the pension department call center. Till some masked commando-types try to take him out one night

Frank takes out the silent attackers in a flurry of punches that you couldn’t even see properly – and then even a hailstorm of bullets from the outside doesn’t ruffle his hair (not that he has any, but you get the idea) as he finishes off all the baddies. Suspecting they might target Sarah (the pensions dept employee), Frank convinces (kidnaps) her to join him as he rounds up his ex-colleagues to find out why someone is so pissed with him

Enter a mischievous Morgan Freeman, who is spending his last days at a retirement home, the technology-hating paranoid John Malkovich, the ex-KGB Brian Cox who doesn’t mind joining his erstwhile enemies as long as it promises some action and Helen Mirren the lethal but dainty looking bed-and-breakfast owner. These guys obviously have a history together – and there is a twinkle in their eye when they recount older adventures – or while fighting off CIA assassins.

Soon they track down the source of the orders, and as is the case with all such movies, the rogue tends to be someone pretty high up. So our REDs hatch an intricate plan to reach their target. And ofcourse things go kabooom – with spectacular explosions all around. Thankfully, the explosions are not the gory type and blood shown is minimal – keeping its entertainment focus intact.

So does the movie fulfil all its promises ? Well, not all. It is a through-and-through entertainer, with no dull moments. The mood of the movie is borderline funny and the oldies keep indulging in playful banter with each other. It is the action which disappoints a little in the second half. While the first half has a couple of awesome sequences with Bruce Willis stepping out of a spinning cat to shoot down an attacker, the second half is bereft of any such wolf-whistle moments.

A couple more of those would have made this an AWESOME movie.