RED 2

I don’t recall if I have ever reviewed the first film. For those of you not familiar with the movies, RED stands for ‘Retired, Extremely Dangerous’ and stars Bruce Willis, John Malkovich, and Helen Mirren.  From the Vertigo comic of the same name, a group of aging ex-CIA operatives must run for their lives while trekking across the global in search of those who have them marked for death.  Only when they can become ‘righteous’ again should life return to normal for these tired agents that still got it. Yeah, right.

As in the first film, the Frank and Marvin, played by Willis and Malkovich, are on the lam again when a WikiLeaks type website ‘outs’ them as nuclear terrorist traders. This time, the demure Helen Mirren has been hired by MI-6 to eliminate them as the actor who plays Storm Shadow in the GI Joe films is too. With the fugitives is Willis’ characters girlfriend played by the feisty star of Weeds, Mary-Louise Parker

Anyway, this film captures the magic of the first Red with great buddy cop banter between Willis and Malkovich’s character. Adding the girlfriend to the mix as well as Catherine Zeta Jones as a Russian KGB operative that is considered to be ‘Frank’s Kryptonite’; the sequel has a sass and sex appeal missing from the first film. Also missing from the first film is the character of Joe played by Morgan Freedman. He was really funny in that film but wasn’t really needed, I guess.

I enjoyed much of the film and suspended much of my dis-belief until the final 15 minutes which involves a car chase with a helicopter. Those scenes were really far-fetched and I could see the ending from about a mile away.  That’s really a shame as earlier in Paris, there’s a great car chase involving Frank and his girlfriend in separate cars trying to catch a fleeing baddie on a motorcycle. Sure, I knew a couple of things before they happened, but that chase was funny and believable. This final chase in the streets of London and English countryside was not.

The ending also seemed hastily thrown together. You get an hour and 30 minutes of great action only to have the whole film end with a shell game. It’s a bit of a let-down. That being said the closing scene was a hoot and left a RED 3 open as a possibility. Despite my dislike of the ending, I would sit through a third film; especially if John Malkovich’s awesomely paranoid Marvin is in the film.

With not very many swears and little in way of gore, this could be a great film for parents with kids over the age of 14. It could also be a date night film on DVD if both parties like action films. There’s a little bit for just about everyone, though the violence could be intense for younger children and those who don’t like the sight of blood.

Worth Consuming.

Rating: 7 out of 10 stars.