RED: Retired and Extremely Dangerous

Warning: May contain spoilers

A refreshing action-comedy flick worth every penny in a long time. Bruce Willis, Morgan Freeman, John Malkovich and Dame Helen Mirren leads this top heavy cast in this Robert Schwentke film. Alongside are Richard Dreyfuss, Mary-Louise Parker, Karl Urban, James Lemar, Julian McMahon (Nip/Tuck) and Brian Cox.

RED tells the story of a retired CIA Analyst, Frank Moses (Willis) who after 2 years away from the field, spends his time getting to know Sarah Ross (Parker) on the phone from the pension office everytime he receives his cheque. She dreams of a life away from her mundane desk-bound job and he seeks to revel in her penchant for romance in novels. All is well up until a unit of "wetworks" operatives storms Moses' humble abode.

They naturally ended up dead ...

Moses' makes his way to Atlanta and abducts Sarah for her safety knowing that their conversations were monitored and suspected her life would be in danger as well. From there, they team up with retired intel operative, Marvin Boggs (Malkovich), Moses' old time friend and ex-colleauge, Joe Matheson (Freeman) and former assassin, Victoria (Mirren) to seek out the people behind the plot to wipe out the men who were behind the cleaning-up operation after a massacre in Guatemala in 1981.Agent William Cooper (Urban) who is makes his appearance as a resolute agent with no less determination to carry out CIA orders without question pursues the uncanny team until his loyalties are questioned by facts and evidence Moses' managed to retrieve from the CIA's "non-existent" archive, manned by Records Keeper, Henry (Ernest Borgnine). Moses et all sought out the government contractor, Alex Dunning (Dreyfuss) who has dealt with the US' most implacable enemies and he seems to hold information to reveal the real plot behind the attempted murders of ex-CIA and Special Forces personnel in Guatemala.

As the movie unravels, the conspiracy leading up to the White House underscores the story with Vice President, John Stanton (McMahon) having a minor role. The highlight of this movie is Moses and Sarah breaking into CIA headquarters at Langley which is the watershed event. The next question is whether loyalties will be changed and whether the truth be made known. Keep your eyes on Malkovich. He is the comic relief in this action comedy.

Firepower, stunts and action will keep you thrilled whilst the slap-stick humor and interplay between this star studded movie will keep you in stitches. Certainly a fantastic summer addition to this year's selection of silver screen entertainment.

I give RED a 8.5/ 10