Viewed in
2010
Formats
Movie theater
Premise
Based on a comic book, Bruce Willis, Morgan Freeman, John Malkovich and Helen Mirren star as retired CIA forced back into action.
Liked
Watching serious actors doing violent action.
Disliked
The Travel Channel-like location transitions, Bryan Cox's failed accent.
Thoughts
There were some funny moments, but overall underwhelming.
At times, I was giddy watching these prestigious names and faces (not to mention Richard Dreyfuss and Bryan Cox) in a silly shoot-em-up. The best parts were the campy humor and laughably over-the-top fight scenes. Malkovich and Mary Louise Parker made the best of their parts, and watching Dame Mirren shooting machine guns was awesome to the point of speechlessness.
Unfortunately, there were a few flaws. Most noticeably was that the movie did not seem to exploit the "elderly committing wanton violence" angle enough. There was times when it resorted to cardboard action/comedy without any twist on age. So those scenes felt like any random action flick. Considering the hilarious action/comedy during the movie, the climactic fight was sadly anti-climactic.
As much as I enjoyed the cool cast, Bryan Cox's attempt at a Russian accent with his Southern drawl was laughably bad.
It was probably not a flaw, but what annoyed me beyond belief was the scene transitions as the characters traveled to at least ten different American cities. They were not exotic, nor necessary for story. It came off as an in-your-face product placement for these states with shooting location incentives. You might as well placed a giant neon "Film here!" sign at every turn.
It was funny, silly, and cool to see these actors, but it could have done more with the premise and material.
What I would change
Got rid of the lame transitions. Made more fights like the one in the blimp's museum from Up.
