Red

Posted May 25, 2012 by Speed - 0 comments

Frank Moses is a retired CIA field operative who lives a boring life in suburbia with the only thing keeping him going being the periodic phone calls to Sarah Ross who’s a simple pension clerk in a government office.

One night a bunch of assassins storm Frank’s home and after his escape he realizes that Sarah may very well be in danger due to their frequent communication over the phone. He decides to kidnap her for her own safety and then heads off to meet up with other “retired extremely dangerous,” or RED, agents to find out why the CIA wants him killed.

Sound and Vision:
RED has received an almost spotless transfer that doesn’t try to hide the age of the cast by softening certain shots up. The level of detail is great and you’ll get to see every wrinkle, age spot and jowl from the actors in question. Color saturation, contrast, background details, … it’s all good and the only thing we’re a bit disappointed about is that it all looks a bit artificial. Still, that could be because this movie is based on a DC Comic and the makers wanted to keep a bit of a comic feel.

It seems Blu-ray releases are getting better and better in the audio department these days. Just like Machete we get an excellent soundtrack that perfectly matches the atmosphere of the movie. Localisation is terrific, explosions are bass heavy, and all in all we get a full range power-hungry track that will rattle your living room. And don’t be scared: dialogues remain perfectly understandable, are well-position and also the music score manages to shine. Excellent stuff that just asks you to turn up the volume!

Extras:
– Audio Commentary with retired CIA field officer Robert Baer
– Deleted Scenes
– Access: Red

Access: Red is quite a nice extra as it offers quite a lot of additional info while the movie plays. You get pop-ups on the screen with a menu at the bottom, allowing you to check out several features while watching the movie. Nicely done and quite original!

Conclusion:
Red is an action comedy where we get an all-star cast doing what they can with the source material. Based on a DC Comic, Red is fun to watch but unfortunately not sharp enough to make a lasting impression.

Don’t get me wrong, I had fun watching it, and the action is really great to watch (especially the scene that you also see in the trailer with Willis jumping out of a car and starting to shoot at a pursuer is fantastic) but the focus is a bit too much on the comedy and Richard Dreyfuss actually does a rather bad job as the villain of the story.

All in all definitely one to check out, but I would strongly suggest renting it before buying.

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