This one's for Red, directed by Robert Schwentke (who most recently did The Time Traveler's Wife and Flightplan) and starring everyone. Seriously.
A Quick Rant About Movie Trailers
I was pleasantly surprised by this film. Which for me is almost everything. Why? Because I see a lot of trailers ever since I worked at the movies, and a trailer can absolutely make or break a film. A good trailer will be well-balanced. It will give you enough information about the plot but not tell you what the whole movie is about from beginning to end.
If it's for an action movie, it will give you a taste of the action but not reveal the end of any action sequence. And it won't give you too many action sequences, nor will it give you the best action sequence in the film. If it's for a comedy, it will give you a couple funny bits, but not all the funny bits that are in the film. If it's for a romantic comedy, you're screwed anyway. If it's for a horror movie, it will make you jump at least once, and it will keep the secret of what's scary about it a secret. If it's for a drama, if it knows what's good for it, it won't give you that scene where the main actor or supporting actor breaks down and cries hysterically while yelling at his or her scene partner. The best trailers, no matter what the genre, leave something to be desired that can be fulfilled by seeing the film.
A HUGE no-no in my book is putting something in the trailer that doesn't make past the cutting room for the actual film. Editors should communicate! It's like they say, "I really liked this one moment, but it's gonna end up on the floor for the final cut. Let's throw it in the trailer!" I know they often put out trailers before they have the final cut, but still. If it makes it to the trailer, it should make it to the film. Trailers are only a series of short scene clips anyway.
Sometimes I've found that the movies I've liked the best are the ones in which the trailers didn't really appeal to me... But then again, most people won't go see a movie if the trailer doesn't appeal to them. Like I said, it's all about balance. You want your audience to be interested enough to go see the movie, but that when they do see it, they're not completely unenthused by the lack of content that wasn't in the trailer.
Back to the Review
So I think the best part about Red was the trailer, because I went into the movie with certain expectations from having seen the trailer and was delightfully surprised. Was the movie cheesy? Sure. Formulaic? 100 percent. Was it gimmicky? Absolutely. But was it completely aware that it was all of these things? You betcha, and I always appreciate something that appreciates itself for what it is. In this case? It's an action-comedy with a bunch of famous older actors that keeps making reference to the fact that it's an action-comedy with a bunch of famous older actors. They're RED: Retired Extremely Dangerous. Ha ha ha. Absolutely ridiculous. But entirely self-aware. And knowing this movie was going to be silly, I was able to go in and let my ever-thinking brain turn off and enjoy it for what it is: pure entertainment that doesn't want you to see it as anything but.
That's gonna be it for my review. Really, it doesn't warrant a huge analysis or anything. The acting was obviously good coming from the all-star cast, which sold every moment with a twinge of that recognition I mentioned above. They knew it wasn't a film to be taken seriously, but they must have seen something in the script that made them want to do it - and they looked like they really enjoyed themselves, which is most of the battle anyway with these kinds of movies. I enjoyed it because it contained all of the elements for a good bad film: over-the-top unrealistic action sequences, corny romance, obvious jokes that are still funny because they are so obvious. Sure, I was able to guess literally everything that was going to happen right before it did. Whatever. For some reason, I didn't care. I will mention that there was a twist, too... Although I didn't really understand it. But I didn't have to, because I knew it was a twist and that's all I really needed to know. I left the theater in a good mood, so Red did its job.
One word to describe this film: Cheese.
Ages that will like this movie the best: Moms. And dads. Anyone 47+.
Scare-factor: Ha. Ha ha. Hahahaha
Level of formulaity (I made that word up): Dripping with formula. So formulaic, you could feed it to your babies instead of milk.
See it in theaters? Not necessary; it doesn't look any better on the big screen than it will on your tv. Although I really loved being in the theater with all the other people, because laughter is contagious you know. Oh and it was especially fun observing the bros sitting behind us, who kept assuring each other they knew what was going to happen but they were wrong every single time.
Recommended if: you too, are retired. Or you don't mind going to a movie that you know is going to be silly just because you want to enjoy yourself for two hours. Also if you like Bruce Willis.
*UPDATE* An Amendment
So actually, foot in mouth, I was pretty wrong about the trailer. Above, I was talking about (and posted) the teaser trailer, not the actually full-length trailer. The teaser is the only one I had seen before going to the movie. So I amend what I said above about the trailer being good. The teaser was great. I'll post the full-length below, which in my opinion isn't as good, because it reveals too much about the plot and does some other things wrong. They should have stuck with just the teaser. If you haven't seen the full-length trailer or the movie, my personal suggestion is that you don't watch the one below... Unless you don't have any interest in seeing Red.
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