RED

RED

RED is a comedy thriller starring Bruce Willis, Morgan Freeman, Helen Mirren and Karl Urban. The storyline is quite unclear and whilst there is entertaining action and mildly humorous quips in the film, it is more evidence for why comedy thrillers are a dangerous genre to use.

They often work: Hot Fuzz, the Johnny English films and Killers being good examples. But it's a risky combination at times because rather than the two concepts gelling together nicely, they can also conflict. It's as if the writers don't really know whether they're focusing on making it funny or thrilling. It can additionally get a bit 'cringe worthy' because sometimes the unrealistic nature of a comedic moment in the middle of an explosive, action-packed moment can be a little off-putting and implausible.

It has it's plus points though- Bruce Willis is, as usual, a good leading character and Karl Urban plays his role very well and adds a bit of necessary seriousness and rivalry that is so desperately needed in a thriller. The characters are generally played well and it's got some good action sequences in there. However one hiccup in that department is how unrealistically casual Brucey is when he's killing bad guys- it's way too easy for him. And the baddies are often ridiculously dumb and bad at what they do. That's just not realistic. There is some light comedy in there but it's not funny enough- I never laughed out loud once during the film. There are some mildly amusing moments that make you smile but I think there just aren't enough naturally funny people in the movie.

It was quite similar to Cop Out- another comedy thriller Bruce Willis is in and it's a similar standard. OK to decent but not the sort of film I'd watch again. There's some good aspects but negative aspects as well. A bad sign was I was always thinking "I wonder how long's left".

However I did enjoy a lot of the action scenes, especially the ones involving Bruce Willis and Karl Urban- their fight scene is very good and there's generally plenty of gun fights, car action and violence in the film, which makes it more entertaining. It was reasonably enjoyable but just with a few faults.

6/10.