Red 2 Review

Red 2 is a recent action comedy, staring Bruce Willis, about Retired Extremely Dangerous people, which refers to retired CIA, MI6, and other spy agencies. Basically, Red is about old people kicking butt in fun and over-the-top action scenes along with a healthy dose of comedy. Being that the first Red was one of the better action comedies in recent years, I was hoping that Red 2 would deliver and it certainly did, at least in the entertainment department. In general, what I liked about Red 2 compared to the first Red is that Red 2 parodied spy movies more compared to Red that parodied action movies, which prevented it from being a total rehash.

Directed by: Dean Parisot
Genre: Action Comedy, Comedy, Comic Book,
Release Date: July 19, 2013
Running Time: 116 minutes
MMPA rating: PG-13


The Good: Tons of hilarious action comedy, Anthony Hopkins is great as always, Over-the-top action, Mostly smart Tongue-in-cheek parody of spy and action movies, Cool comic book style transitions, Byung-hun Lee was awesome!, Allstar cast, John Malkovich makes the movie,

The Bad: Contrived plot points, Some plot holes (but who cares!),


Plot: The following plot summary is copied from Wikipedia.com.
While trying to lead a normal life with girlfriend Sarah Ross (Mary-Louise Parker), Frank Moses (Bruce Willis) is approached by Marvin Boggs (John Malkovich), who is afraid that there are still people after them, but Frank dismisses him. After appealing a second time, Marvin drives off but his car explodes. Although Frank does not believe Marvin is dead, Sarah convinces him to go to Marvin's funeral where he delivers a teary-eyed eulogy. After the funeral, a group of government agents approach Frank and take him to be interrogated at a Yankee White Facility. During the interrogation, Jack Horton (Neal McDonough) appears, killing most of the facility's personnel, and tells Frank that he will torture Sarah in order to get information out of Frank. Frank manages to escape with the help of Marvin, who turns out to be alive, and they go on the run with Sarah. Marvin explains that he and Frank are being hunted down because they were listed as participants in a secret operation codenamed Nightshade.
Watch the movie to see what happens next.

Plot: 3.5/10- Even for a comedy, Red 2's plot is completely ridiculous and contrived. It tries to take its self too seriously, which is the film's major flaw. When it goes for the comedy it hits the mark, and when it is serious, it stumbles. Also, Red is based on a DC comic of the same name.

Characterization: 4.1/10- Thanks to the strong performances, all of the characters are fun and likable, even if they are barely developed (does anyone really care?).

Action: 8.2/10- Considering that Red 2's action is intentionally over-the-top and unrealistic in a parody type of way, it certainly delivered some entertaining action scenes. The scenes with the actor Lee Byung-hun featured some awesome martial-arts action.

Byung-hun the right and Helen Mirren on the left

Acting: 8.4/10- Red 2's cast is its strong aspect. Of the main cast, everyone delivers hilarious performances! While not being a likable guy in real life, Bruce Willis continues to be charismatic and likable on screen. Seriously, how can you not this guy? He also played a great straight-man in the comedy scenes. As with the first Red, John Malkovich is the real star of show because he steals almost every scene he is in with his hilarious brand of humor. While some might find her annoying, Mary-Louise Parker plays such a lovable character that I cannot get enough of her! During most of her scenes, she acts as if she is high, which is funny since she stars on the series Weeds (haven't seen it). On a side note, you might think she is far too young to playing Bruce Willis' girlfriend, but in fact she is only nine years younger than Willis and I have to say that she looks great for her age. Korean actor Byung-hun Lee should be given better roles because he is freaking awesome in the movie and has a great presence. He could be the next Bruce Lee! As always, Anthony Hopkins is great in his role, and so is Helen Mirren.

Special effects: 4.0/10- Red 2 does not use a lot of special effects, but there were a few majorly noticeable uses of green screen.

Soundtrack: 6.0/10- While kind of weak for a Alan Silvestri score, the soundtrack was neither bad nor memorable.

Humor: 8.2/10- Obviously humor is subjective, that being said, Red 2 is a movie that made me laugh a lot, and when I wasn't laughing, I was at least amused. Very few jokes missed their mark, and since I have not seen the first Red in a year or two, some of the reused jokes remained funny.
Humor Percentage
Hilarious: 60%
Mildly Funny: 30%
Not Funny: 10%

Overall: 7.0/10- For a comedy, Red 2 is a lot of fun. While the plot stumbles, the humor, great cast, and fun action more than make up for its shortcomings in terms of entertainment if nothing else.

Closing comments: Providing you only pay the rental price to see Red 2, it is worth your time if you are a fan of the first Red, and if you have seen not either, go watch give the first one a watch; it is a lot of fun.

Recommended for: Red fans, Bruce Willis fans, Action fans, Action Comedy fans, Comedy fans,

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