RED
Summit Entertainment | Release Date: October 15, 2010 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
60
METASCORE
Mixed or average reviews based on 38 Critic Reviews
Positive:
24
Mixed:
13
Negative:
1
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
80
The Hollywood ReporterJohn DeFore
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. Read full review
80
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. Read full review
75
Charlotte ObserverLawrence Toppman
One of those rare action comedies that actually delivers action and comedy. Read full review
75
ReelViewsJames Berardinelli
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. Read full review
75
Portland OregonianShawn Levy
Red isn't edifying, ennobling, or artful. It's just an utterly satisfying combination of big kicks, cheap thrills and real laughs. Read full review
75
San Francisco ChronicleAmy Biancolli
This breezy action comedy is a noisy affirmation that life goes on after 50, that retirement doesn't mean redundancy, and that nobody - young or old - can wear a long cream evening gown like Mirren. Read full review
75
MovielineMichelle Orange
The result is like a sugar rush after a visit to the vintage candy store. Read full review
75
New York PostKyle Smith
Red has more snappy joy in store than practically all of last summer's busted blockbusters. Read full review
75
New Orleans Times-PicayuneMike Scott
RED is so much fun -- and its Over the Hill Gang so likeable -- that this is one of those rare cases where I wouldn't mind seeing them come out of retirement again for another romp. Read full review
70
The New YorkerAnthony LaneOct 27, 2010
The good news is that, while "The Expendables" was the kind of product that should be shown to health inspectors rather than critics, much of Red is jovial and juvenating. [1 Nov. 2010, p.121]
70
SalonAndrew O'HehirOct 21, 2010
All those guys are a blast, and the dark-hearted idiocy of Red is mostly quite enjoyable. Read full review
70
Wall Street JournalJoe Morgenstern
The best part of Red is the spectacle of terrific actors being terrific in novel ways. Read full review
70
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. Read full review
70
Village VoiceRobert Wilonsky
Not the best. Not the worst. Just the classiest. Read full review
70
New York Daily NewsElizabeth Weitzman
To underestimate actors of this caliber -- even in a popcorn action flick -- would be dangerous indeed. Read full review
67
The A.V. ClubTasha Robinson
Part of it is cheap thrills, of course; this is a capable, experienced cast with extensive acting chops, and it's trashy fun watching them descend to the level of the material. Read full review
67
Tampa Bay TimesSteve Persall
It's an amusing geriatric uprising that might just as well be titled "Gray." Read full review
67
Christian Science MonitorPeter Rainer
RED is a poisoned valentine to the CIA, and that approach, too, is in keeping with its cold-war sentimentality. Read full review
67
Austin ChronicleMarc Savlov
There's no denying the kick you get from seeing Borgnine (forever lovelorn Marty to me, when he's not tooling around my head as Cabbie, from John Carpenter's Escape From New York) and company kick ass, take names, and go batshit crazy one last time. Read full review
63
Chicago TribuneMichael Phillips
Red starts repeating itself and spinning its wheels and looking for an ending, well before the ending arrives. The actors have considerable fun with it, though. Read full review
63
Philadelphia InquirerSteven Rea
Too long, too busy, too loud, and too reliant on slam-bang stunt work, Red's glib dialogue and sinister government scenarios begin to wear. Read full review
63
Washington PostAnn Hornaday
Unlike "Wild Hogs" or last summer's "The Expendables," this adaptation of the "Red" graphic novel series gets into a cool, sophisticated swing. Read full review
63
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. Read full review
63
Miami HeraldRene Rodriguez
Excels at bringing on the high-power pyrotechnics. Read full review
60
EmpireAngie ErrigoOct 21, 2010
Good fun, and though it breathes hard in the second half, the ensemble has charisma to spare. Read full review
60
Chicago ReaderBen Sachs
The film preserves many of Ellis's amoral one liners (best delivered by Malkovich and by Richard Dreyfuss as one of the villains), though as in much of his writing, the fun is discolored by a profound cynicism. Read full review
60
Time OutKeith Uhlich
It's the casting, stupid! Read full review
58
Entertainment WeeklyKeith Staskiewicz
Unfortunately, while RED's stars may have gotten better with age, its many clichés have not. Read full review
50
Boston GlobeTy Burr
"The Expendables" trotted out the concept this summer, and it was good dumb fun - a nudge-nudge wink-wink '80s movie on steroids. RED is more self-consciously wacky, more stridently in your face, and more disappointing. Read full review
50
Los Angeles TimesKenneth Turan
Red can't stop itself from trying too hard to be hip. It's not that it doesn't have effective moments, it's that it doesn't have as many as it thinks it does. The film's inescapable air of glib self-satisfaction is not only largely unearned, it's downright irritating. Read full review
50
St. Louis Post-DispatchJoe Williams
Red is an insult to our memories and to our intelligence, an unfunny farce whose veteran cast is cashing a retirement check. Read full review
50
The New York TimesA.O. Scott
It is possible to have a good time at RED, but it is not a very good movie. Read full review
50
USA TodayClaudia Puig
The uneven humor, half-baked plot and generic action scenes keep RED from being much fun. Read full review
50
SlateDana Stevens
Red simultaneously tries too hard and not hard enough. Read full review
50
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Liam Lacey
The star turns are Red's raison d'être, with the winking performances filling the place of any credible dramatic tension. Read full review
50
Chicago Sun-TimesRoger Ebert
Red is neither a good movie nor a bad one. It features actors we like doing things we wish were more interesting. Read full review
40
Boxoffice MagazineMark Keizer
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. Read full review
20
The TelegraphTim RobeyNov 20, 2013
The movie doesn’t have a funny bone in its body, clomping from one unoriginal set piece to the next with a head-scratching lack of urgency. Read full review
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