Even the more cartoonish performances, like John Malkovich's acid-damaged paranoiac, fit the movie's vision of the vanished, wild-and-woolly heyday of spycraft.
80
Arizona RepublicBill Goodykoontz
Arizona RepublicBill Goodykoontz
Red isn't a great movie, but it's great fun, and if that sounds like damning with faint praise, you take things too seriously.
It's a lot of fun and, because of the high quality of the cast, there's no need to feel guilty about praising such an inherently silly motion picture.
75
MovielineMichelle Orange
MovielineMichelle Orange
The result is like a sugar rush after a visit to the vintage candy store.
70
VarietyJustin Chang
VarietyJustin Chang
Only a curmudgeon could entirely resist the laid-back charms of Red, an amusing, light-footed caper about a team of aging CIA veterans rudely forced out of retirement.
70
Village Voice
Village Voice
Not the best. Not the worst. Just the classiest.
67
Tampa Bay TimesSteve Persall
Tampa Bay TimesSteve Persall
It's an amusing geriatric uprising that might just as well be titled "Gray."
63
Orlando SentinelRoger Moore
Orlando SentinelRoger Moore
Red has enough acting flourishes and incidental action pleasures to make it an adrenalin-jacked giggle, if not exactly the romp one so fervently expects.
No one is expected to take any of this seriously, so Schwentke keeps things light: light on big laughs, light on unique action set pieces and light on any sense that these game but retired spies are too old for this crap.