2022 delivered a sad piece of news for action movie fans as Bruce Willis finally was forced to call quits on a glorious acting career, and though the star had faded out of the spotlight during the last decade, he did give moviegoers a glimpse at what the tail end of his career could have looked like inRed.
Redpremiered in 2010, shortly after a similaractionflick that plays on the same premise that old-timers like Willis can still kick some serious butt, the much more successful franchiseThe Expendables. Nevertheless, the two movies couldn’t be more different, withRedfully embracing the comedy genre as opposed toThe Expendablesleaning into the serious action thriller, and though the masses clearly wanted more of the second,Redmight as well be considered among the actor’s last great performances.
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A Genuine All-star Cast
Helen Mirren has made a name for herselfas one of Hollywood’s finest actresses, and also a force to be reckoned with thanks to her appearances inThe Fast and Furious, but even ifNational Treasure: Book of Secretswas the first popular role fo this kind for her,Red’sretired MI6 agent Victoria Winslow might be the best. On top of that, John Malkovich and Morgan Freeman also put in the work to round off this eccentric band of Retired and Extremely Dangerous (RED) individuals, trying to cope (or not) with boring civilian lives.
Even if a stacked cast is no guarantee, especially when it comes to silly comedies,Redstill raked in healthy profits by earning $199m on a $60m, a number in the region that studios so often fear delving into nowadays. To put it simply, when at its best,Redis a comfort action comedy that shamelessly riffs on the genre’s tropes to produce a good two hours of entertainment and in that regard it delivers.
RevisitingRedin 2022 feels like a time capsule of some sort, except when one notices that Karl Urban plays anantagonist that’s very similar toThe Boys’Billy Butcher, albeit this CIA agent being more in line with the agency’s culture. It’s hard to argueRedis greater than the sum of its parts, yet the talent of all these actors is often what elevates the film’s comic book plot (yes, it’s based on a comic) and makes it look so fresh despite its faults.
If Sylvester Stallone found success withThe Expendables,Rocky Balboa,or even the Creed movieswhere he delivers some of the most gripping performances of his career,Redfeels like it should have been the start of a similar path for Willis to continue reliving his prime. Since then, even Liam Nesson’sTakenturned him into a movie star, which is often what makes Willis’ straight-to-video era so perplexing.
An Action-Packed Retirement
Despite being the protagonist in bothRedmovies, Willis isn’t forced to carry either film, arguably one could make a case that Malkovich does a lot of the heavy lifting with Marvin being an incredibly on-brand character for the iconic star. More than anything, Malkovich sets the tone for the sheer absurdity in bothRedfilms, where Willis’ Frank Moses accidentally forces his crush Sarah (Mary Louise-Parker) to quickly become familiar with the globetrotting missions that adorned his career.
The firstRedmovie is fun in all the right ways, carefully mixing rom-com elements with some pretty over-the-top action sequences that make the film’s world come together and, at the same time, help turn Frank’s quest to escape assassination more believable. Granted, the first film does this much better thanRed 2, which despite the addition of a stellar Anthony Hopkins, Catherine Zeta-Jones andByung-hun Lee (Squid Game), suffers a lotfrom engaging in a repetitive theme that’s too similar to the original.
Anyone that enjoysRedwill get a kick out ofRed 2, but sadly the similarities between the two might be the reason why the sequel flopped at the box office and why a third movie was never made. After 2013’sRed 2, Willis’ most notable roles came in Robert Rodriguez’sSin City: A Dame to Kill Forand M. Night Shyamalan’sGlass, yet somehowRedremains his last great leading part, and in many waysthe final vintage Bruce Willis performance.
Willis’ health struggles have made criticism over the final years of his career age pretty badly, as it’s impossible for outsiders to know or understand when and how his aphasia started deteriorating the star’s mind. In 2023, Willis will turn 68 a few weeks prior to the release ofhis final straight-to-video movie,Assassin, a low-budget productionwhere the man who was once Hollywood’s top action hero barely shows up.
Ultimately, it’s impossible not to wish for things to have turned out differently, perhaps Willis deserved to rescue John McClanethe same way Stallone salvagedRocky’sgood name. Sure, it’s whataboutism at best, but Retired and Extremely Dangerous feels like the theme thatshould have closed out Bruce Willis' impressive career.
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