Is there a more refreshing way to start the day than with something bizarrely cool that you never imagined you would ever see? Maybe, but I’ve already watched the first teaser trailer for the comic book movie Red, so the damage has been done.
Red is based on a short-lived DC comic book series of the same name and stars Bruce Willis as Frank Moses, a former black-ops agent who is trying (but failing) to enjoy his retirement. When the CIA decides that he is too big a risk to leave alive, Frank sets out to reassemble his old team of operatives in order to fight to survive.
The members of Frank’s former unit are played by the likes of Mary-Louise Parker (Weeds), Morgan Freeman (The Dark Knight), John Malkovich (Transformers 3), and Dame Helen Mirren. Yes, you heard right – the four-time Academy-Award nominee (and winner for her starring turn in The Queen) gets to play a machine gun-wielding hit woman.
Mirren has starred in mainstream Hollywood fare in the past (National Treasure: Book of Secrets) and will continue to do so in the future (Legend of the Guardians). But seriously – watch the trailer below and tell me there’s nothing strange about the sight of her destroying a car via immense firepower.
There’s nothing particularly innovative about most of the footage shown in the Red teaser. Freeman has done several silly action movies in the past; this isn’t the first time Willis has played a former hit man disillusioned by the quiet life (see: The Whole Nine Yards); and Malkovich, well, anyone who had the misfortune of watching him in idiotic fare like Eragon or Jonah Hex knows that he’s been hamming it up for years now.
Do I think the sight of Mirren blowing away her enemies between bouts of tea and cookies will make Red worth the price of admission? Is it sad that I want to say yes?
What do you think? Does Red look like a fun action pic? What do you make of Mirren with a gun? Sound off in the comments section below.
Red will arrive in theaters in the U.S. on October 15th, 2010.
