Cracking jokes and cracking heads

Bruce Willis, Helen Mirren and Morgan Freeman take their best shots in 'Red'

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(Friday, Oct. 15) Perhaps it’s oversimplifying things to say “Red” is themovie “Knight and Day” wanted to be. But it sure feels that way.

It starts off with a flirtation between a man with a past(substitute Bruce Willis for Tom Cruise) and a woman who knows nothing about him(replace Cameron Diaz with Mary-Louise Parker). Before long, the two will be onthe run together, bouncing from location to location and trying to stay atleast a few steps ahead of hired killers. There’s a wacky genius to offer somemuch-needed assistance (goodbye to Paul Dano, hello to John Malkovich) and atruly cold-blooded cat out to stop our heroes (Peter Sarsgaard steps aside forKarl Urban).

Are there explosions, car chases, more explosions, gunplay,a few bonus explosions and a few situations that defy the laws of physics (suchas Willis’ character being able to emerge effortlessly from a spinning car)?What do you think?

The real bonus in “Red” comes in the form of Helen Mirren,who casually drops in midway through the movie as a semi-retired professionalassassin who delights in domesticity.

“I love the baking, I love the flower-arranging, I love theroutine,” she tells her former cohorts before confessing “I do take the oddcontract on the side; you can’t flip a switch and become somebody else.”

Mirren is a high-toned hoot, the wild card that “Red” sorelyneeds. The rest of the movie is enjoyable enough on its own terms, especiallyif you’ve been hankering for a revision of director Clint Eastwood’s “SpaceCowboys” with former spies and intelligence agents in place of agingastronauts.

Certainly no one can accuse “Red” of being stingy when it comes tostar power: The cast also includes Morgan Freeman as Willis’ trustedex-associate, who’s now enlivening a rest home; a supremely snarky RichardDreyfuss, cast as an arms-dealing megalomaniac who assesses “a surcharge onweapons delivered to countries under U.N. embargoes”; and a Russian-accentedBrian Cox, playing the one-time lover and target of the majestic Mirren.

Inspired by a popular graphic novel, “Red” seems to take itsattitude straight from Willis. Once a fat-talking, irrepressible man on themove in TV’s “Moonlighting,” Willis has mellowed into a tough guy with a tenderside and a casual approach to life. If the hyperactive pace of “Knight and Day”reflected Tom Cruise’s highly strung, eager-to-impress persona, the off-hand,almost playful tone of “Red” is a reflection of Willis’ considerably less fussyimage: He takes his work seriously, but not so seriously that he’s at risk ofulcers or hyperventilation.

Older and wiser? Perhaps. Older and still wisecracking? Mostdefinitely.

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