Red is an atypical typical film. That is, a host of "older" actors play roles that are completely against type for them, but the substance of the plot is about a group of government operatives/assassins who are yanked out of retirement by a threat against their lives individually and corporately. Sure, we've seen this type of thing with Matt Damon in the Bourne movies or in various ways recently, like The Losers or The A-Team, but did we expect The Queen (that is, Helen Mirren) to be a gun-toting sniper or Nelson Mandela AKA God AKA Morgan Freeman to be a downright lethal dude?

Bruce Willis is the only one who is out-and-out comfortable as the assassin who wakes one day to retired monotony and sets out on a wild cross-country ride after a team of CIA death squad folks descend on his house and nearly annihilate it. He's Frank Moses, and he's been declared RED: retired, extremely dangerous. While he's busy assembling a crack team of former allies and enemies to battle back for old times sake, William Cooper (Karl Urban, Lord of the Rings, Star Trek), a younger version of Moses, seeks out each of them with extreme prejudice.

Along the way, Moses picks up Sarah (Mary-Louise Parker), who is only guilty of providing his retirement check, the woman he has loved in his retirement; he acquires the assistance of the absolutely batty Marvin (John Malkovich); he reels in the terminally ill Joe (Freeman); he acquires the sure sight of Victoria (Mirren); and he tentatively engages the help of his old Russian counterpart, Ivan (Brian Cox). All of them seem up against a broader plot to silence their memories and histories, bound in government conspiracy and comic-book flavored action.

I found myself entertained but not completely enthralled. This one is good for a bucket of popcorn and a Coke, but it's not exactly thought-provoking. Sure, there are few ideas that could give you something to chew on, like, How do we retire well and what does it mean to grow old (but not give up on life)? But those are fleeting thoughts that pass away early before the full-on battle to the finish, with a bit of deception, a little smoke and mirrors, and we finally have a true comic book ending for the (old) ages.

Do I recommend it? Yes. It is neither deep and wide, nor overly offensive. Most of the action is pretty "comic book" worthy; that is, out of a comic book from ten to fifteen years ago, not the recent jaunts. The banter is witty, the photography is stylized, and the thing rolls on like a recently irritated tiger. Speaking of which, these old coots seem more prepared for battle than they do for rolling over and playing dead.

We could use more RED in our lives.