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Because we'd had a miserable last two weeks suffering from the same bad cold, I took esrblog to the movies tonight to see "Red," since it seemed to me from what I knew about it to be the kind of picture he likes. I was right; however, we both enjoyed it a lot.

Let me open with a caveat: If you don't like violence in movies, "RED" won't be for you. It's of the action-adventure genre, which means that there's a fair amount of shooting, gore and explosions. But if you don't mind some patches of red in your black comedy, read on.

The basic storyline of "RED" is not all that original, but it's redone here with some good solid performances by well-established actors, some wit, and a lot of style and grace. In many ways, it is the sort of movie I'd hoped this summer's "The Expendables" would be, but wasn't.

There's also some resemblance to "The A Team". That is, the plot involves a team of four experts who reunite to confront a new threat based on some old history: a leader, an elegant expert, a wacko, and ...yes, a black guy. Only here, Bruce Willis is the leader, Helen Mirren is the expert, John Malkovich is the wacko, and Morgan Freeman is the black guy. Marvelous dialogue and some great twists on the basic story theme ensue. I wouldn't dream of spoilerizing the fun.

If you enjoyed Willis in the "Die Hard" movies, you'll enjoy this, because he's every bit as good here, but the plot's less overtly bloody and cleverer than the plots of those movies were. Surprisingly, he has a love interest, but it's Mary-Louise Parker, not Mirren, in a caught-up-in-things-greater-than-me romance plot that actually feels plausible and doesn't demote her to mere rescue object.

One last comment. The title, "RED" is actually an acronym, but it would be telling tales out of school to translate it here.