RED

Robert Schwentke’s 2010 film starts with a retired CIA man attacked at home, forcing Frank to pull his old team together. The source is a three issue comic by Warren Ellis and Cully Hamner, and the film departs from it deliberately. Before shooting, Schwentke said he loved the script because it is very funny, which the comic is not, and that it is less violent; three issues, he added, are not enough for a two hour movie. Readers wanting that lean, grim revenge story will meet something else. The most distinctive idea is the romance: Frank keeps tearing up his pension cheques because that is his only pretext for phoning Sarah at the call centre; the two build the relationship entirely by telephone before they meet. A production first as well: this was the first film from a DC title that Warner Bros. did not make. Nine weeks were shot around Toronto and the final two in New Orleans. A post credits scene was shot separately in Louisiana in August 2010. Right for a viewer who treats the comedy as the point and accepts the phone romance taking as much room as the gunfire. Wrong for a reader who wants the comic’s tone, or for anyone who reads the call centre scenes as the film marking time.