RED (2010)

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General		Extras
Category	Action Comedy	Menu Animation & Audio Audio Commentary Trivia Deleted Scenes Interviews-Cast & Crew Featurette-CIA Exposed
Rating
Year Of Production	2010
Running Time	106:32
RSDL / Flipper	Dual Layered	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Ads Then Menu
Region Coding	4	Directed By	Robert Schwentke
Studio Distributor	Icon Entertainment	Starring	Bruce Willis Mary-Louise Parker John Malkovich Helen Mirren Karl Urban Morgan Freeman
Case	?
RPI	$39.95	Music	Christophe Beck

Video		Audio
Pan & Scan/Full Frame	None	English Dolby Digital 5.1 (448Kb/s)
Widescreen Aspect Ratio	2.40:1
16x9 Enhancement
Video Format	576i (PAL)
Original Aspect Ratio	2.40:1	Miscellaneous
Jacket Pictures	No
Subtitles	English for the Hearing Impaired English Information	Smoking	No
		Annoying Product Placement	No
		Action In or After Credits	No

     This light and wacky action film has already been reviewed on our site in it’s Blu-ray edition. There is certainly fun to be had with this film which has very little seriousness to it at all. It is completely tongue-in-cheek and despite having well shot and interesting action scenes, never takes itself seriously. The cast is chock full of big name stars all seemingly having a ball. The plot is wafer thin but the film doesn't outstay its welcome and helps to pass an amiable 100 minutes or so. It was very successful at the box office and as you would expect a sequel is in the works. RED stands for Retired Extremely Dangerous.

     My colleague, TrevorD, give a good summation of the plot in the review linked above, so I won't retell it. The casting and their obvious relish at playing the characters is the main draw here especially Bruce Willis, Morgan Freeman, Helen Mirren, John Malkovich and Brian Cox as the retired spies who just can't give the life away. Other casting highlights include 94 year old Ernest Borgnine as Henry, the CIA record keeper, Karl Urban, playing it tough as a current CIA assassin, Mary Louise Parker, as Willis' feisty love interest, Sarah and Richard Dreyfuss, who hasn't been in many big films lately.

     The film was directed by German born Robert Schwentke, who is starting to hit the big time after Flightplan in 2005 and The Time Traveller's Wife in 2009. There are some quite impressive action sequences with built in humour. I was particularly struck by a scene where Bruce Willis steps out of a moving car and calmly shoots at Karl Urban chasing him.

     A warning about this disc is that it does feature an unskippable anti-piracy trailer.

     All in all, this is a fun and wacky film with some quality action sequences and a wonderful cast, just don't expect any great depth in the plot.

Video

     The video quality is very good. The feature is presented in a 2.40:1 aspect ratio which is the original aspect ratio.

     The picture was quite clear and sharp but was affected by some mild MPEG artefacts such as at 39:15 and 70:18 and some blurring due to interlacing during fast motion. The shadow detail was very good. The colour is excellent showing off the variety of locations on show. There were no other artefacts.

     There are subtitles in English for the Hearing Impaired which were clear and easy to read.

     There is no obvious layer change during playback.

Video Ratings Summary

Sharpness
Shadow Detail
Colour
Grain/Pixelization
Film-To-Video Artefacts
Film Artefacts
Overall

Audio

     The audio quality is very good, close to excellent.

     This disc contains an English Dolby Digital 5.1 soundtrack encoded at 448 Kb/s. Dialogue was mostly clear and easy to hear but lacked clarity at times. The music by Christophe Beck is cool and funky, perfectly suited to the style of the film. The surround speakers were in constant use for gunshots, surround effects, music and lots of atmosphere. The subwoofer was used for music support, explosions, gunfire and lots of action effects.

Audio Ratings Summary

Dialogue
Audio Sync
Clicks/Pops/Dropouts
Surround Channel Use
Subwoofer
Overall

Menu

     The menu included an introduction, motion and music.

Easter Egg - RED Vfx (10:20)

     An Easter Egg is available on this disc if you (SPOILER ALERT: highlight with mouse to read) press left from the main menu item on the special features menu. This is a ten minute featurette about the visual effects in the film and how they were done.

Audio Commentary - Robert Baer Former CIA Operative

     This is an interesting and different commentary by the technical consultant on the film who was a CIA agent. He talks about how the film compares to the reality of the CIA, how agents approach life after the CIA and a variety of anecdotes about his time in the CIA. Very interesting listen.

Trivia Track

     This is a subtitles stream which adds trivia to the screen during the playback of the film. It is very trivial stuff indeed, mostly random pieces of information about things onscreen like a book. Generally these are not actually linked to the plot although there is an ongoing cost of damage done counter.

Deleted & Extended Scenes (8:22)

     Mostly minor additions or extra exposition.

Cast Insights (29:15)

     Lots of EPK style interview snippets about lots of different topics including working with Bruce, the director, the cast, characters, action & locations. Not bad but probably far too much for anyone except the most hardy viewer.

CIA Exposed (5:56)

     Short documentary style snippets about the history of the CIA including LSD experiments, listening devices, the cold war, Guatemala. Interesting but too short.

    The various DVD editions of this film globally seem to be quite similar but I am struggling to find any detailed information about them to be absolutely sure..

     A fun, tongue-in-cheek action film with a great cast but a wafer thin plot. The video quality is very good. The audio quality is very good, bordering on excellent. The extras are very good.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall