R.E.D. - Older, Harder, Better

It is very nice that some filmmakers and also actors steadfastly refuse to follow Hollywood's pathological youth mania. After Sylvester Stallone most recently successfully chased a powerful gang of retirees across cinema screens in "The Expendables", German director Robert Schwentke ("Flightplan", "The Time Traveler's Wife") is now also drumming up an illustrious round

Frank Moses (Bruce Willis) can't seem to come to terms with being a retiree. Once he was the CIA's best secret weapon, but now dull idleness defines his daily life in forced retirement. Only the regular phone calls with Sarah (Mary-Louise Parker), a pension fund employee who keeps contacting Frank about supposedly lost pension checks, brighten his gray existence. After a few months, the ex-agent takes heart and decides to pay a visit to his phone acquaintance. Although she is actually looking forward to it, the first meeting turns out a little different than expected. Frank has to leave his retirement home head over heels when it is attacked by a hit squad. And since he knows from experience that his attackers probably know exactly that he has a certain interest in Sarah, this is certainly also on the list of unknown enemies.

And so Frank takes the completely overwhelmed Sarah against her will in his care and makes himself with her in tow to find out who wants to turn off his lights. He enlists the help of some old colleagues (Morgan Freeman, John Malkovich, Helen Mirren) and with their help quickly finds out that the elimination order against him comes directly from the CIA. But Frank Moses and his team of course can not be so easily simply promoted to the siding...

With "R.E.D. - Older, Harder, Better" (R.E.D. stands for : Retired, extremely dangerous, so: Retired and extremely dangerous) Robert Schwentke has really not reinvented the action genre. The story is a bit weak and also most of the action sequences seem kind of stale and not really original. And yet, the movie works damn well, offering best entertainment from the first to the last minute. The reason for this is not only the good-humored production, which also doesn't take itself too seriously. First and foremost, the film's success is due to the wonderful cast. Bruce Willis is as cool as ever, which becomes obvious in a scene where he casually gets out of a moving, spinning car and fires with a steady hand at his CIA pursuer Cooper (played magnificently by Karl Urban). Only when it comes to confessing his affections to Sarah does the swashbuckler struggle a little, which gives Willis the opportunity to also showcase his comedic talents once again.

Also, Morgan Freeman as an old philanderer who never misses an opportunity to stare at his young nurses' butts, and Helen Mirren as a passionate assassin who always keeps her composure, even with a machine gun in her hand. The obvious pleasure Mirren took in playing this rather uncharacteristic role for her is evident in every second of the acclaimed actress' performance, and so it transfers to the viewer.

But the secret star of the film is John Malkovich, who gets the best laughs as the paranoid Marvin. Malkovich is simply wonderful in this film and his scenes alone are reason enough to justify buying the movie ticket. But the brief guest appearances by Richard Dreyfuss ("Jaws") and the now 93-year-old Ernest Borgnine also make this film quite a wonderful cinematic treat. Certainly, in terms of content "R.E.D. - Older, Harder, Better" is not a real revelation and maybe even a little disappointment. But in the end, this point of criticism completely recedes into the background. Because what Robert Schwentke wanted to achieve with his film, namely to offer the audience simply well-made cinema pleasure with enormous entertainment value, the strip completely fulfills. A dream cast, great action and good jokes, all this makes "R.E.D. - Älter, Härter, Besser" one of the best action films of the year, despite weaknesses in content. Definitely worth seeing

An article by Frankfurt-Tipp