Seeing John Malkovich
Before I dive into the one-man circus of insanity that is John Malkovich, let me quickly set the table.
If you don’t like Bruce Willis, you will not like Red. He’s on-screen 200% of the time, doing a variety of improvisations on the theme of John McClane two decades past Diehard. Oh he still has a few cooler than a glacier moves and his head absolutely gleams. But those pursed lips. We’ve been there.
Then there’s Helen Mirren, highly acclaimed (and thereby patronized) for “looking so sexy” for her sixtysomething age. She looks fine, but she also walks through her role as a simulation of a simulated aging great actress. And if Mirren can, from some angles, look youngish for her age, poor Morgan Freeman (trotted out to join the team of retired CIA assassins known as Retired Extremely Dangerous -“red”) looks like his own father. He must have needed the paycheck – recent divorce perhaps?
Red contains a few nice surprises. For example, the indestructible Ernest Borgnine (yes, he IS still alive) does a crafty cameo, and the RED team’s CIA nemesis is played by the very tasty Karl Urban who rivals Daniel “James Bond” Craig in the “don’t bother to wrap it” department.
Having said all of this – yes the film is diverting, but no it isn’t memorable – let me now turn to the main course — John Malkovich, (more…)
