Review: RED 2

Retired CIA op Bruce Willis is living the ‘normal’ life with his main squeeze Mary-Louise Parker, when buddy John Malkovich turns up to warn him about leaked information that wrongly implicates the two of them in the cover-up of a top-secret nuclear program from the late 70s. After unsuccessfully attempting to get Willis to join him in action, Malkovich is apparently blown up. They have a funeral for him and everything. It appears that several nefarious people are after Willis, including old nemesis Byung-Hun Lee, cold-eyed Government assassin Neal McDonough, and even former associate, icy ex-MI6 operative Dame Helen Mirren has been given the hit order against Willis. Catherine Zeta-Jones turns up as a Russian operative and former flame of Willis’, Sir Anthony Hopkins turns up as a once brilliant British scientist who may be senile, David Thewlis is a snooty assassin known as The Frog, and Brian Cox (The ‘other’ Hannibal) is back as the friendly ex-KGB guy with a soft spot for Mirren.

 

The original “RED” was lightweight fun that really ought to have been even better, given its cast. This 2013 sequel from director Dean Parisot (“Galaxy Quest” and a whole lotta TV work) and writers Jon and Erich Hoeber (“Battleship”, “RED”) is also lightweight fun, and in my view better than the first film. It also really ought to have been even better, given its cast. But given that it’s a rare sequel that is better than the original, maybe I shouldn’t complain. I didn’t have quite the same sense of being underwhelmed with this one, though the first film was perfectly OK, don’t get me wrong. I certainly didn’t miss Morgan Freeman and the late Ernest Borgnine like I figured I would this time out.

 

The film starts out in funny fashion, with John Malkovich receiving awfully high billing for someone dead in the first five minutes. Gee, do you think he’s really dead? Bruce Willis’ eulogy for him is genuinely funny, and I almost admired the screenwriters for not even bothering to explain the impossible, because in its own way, it makes it funnier. John Malkovich doesn’t get as many moments to shine this time out (and didn’t get much more last time, either), but the very idea of Malkovich essentially playing Mel Gibson to Willis’ Danny Glover in a schlocky action film is kinda priceless. If nothing else he shows he can be an ensemble player without having an especially meaty role. Meanwhile, I’m not normally a Neal McDonough fan, but he impresses early on here as a charming but cold-blooded assassin. He’s actually legit scary, if underused. Willis is Willis, but he plays comically exasperated very amusingly, and plays off both Mary-Louise Parker and Malkovich extremely well. They make for a fun trio. Even more so than last time, Parker (who I refuse to believe is in her 40s, she looks better than ever) runs off with the whole show. Her cheeriness in the face of danger, violence, and confusing espionage is truly infectious. Catherine Zeta-Jones looks absolutely ravishing, she hasn’t looked this edible since 1999’s “The Haunting”. This is miles ahead of her previous teaming with Willis, “Lay the Favourite”. The idea of Dame Helen Mirren looking all regal while drowning a guy in acid is an old concept by now…but she sure plays this well. She gets into the right comic spirit, even pretending to be a crazy person who thinks she’s the queen, at one point. Clever stuff. Sir Anthony Hopkins’ first scene reminds one of his first scene in “Silence of the Lambs” (presumably deliberately), and gives an interesting performance here. Far from doing lazy schtick, Hopkins has you wondering if his character is too nutty to be useful, merely pretending to be, or a little nutty but acting even nuttier to be deceptive. Both he and a returning Brian Cox look like they are having the most fun here, along with Parker. It’s a shame Neal McDonough, a well-cast David Thewlis, and barely glimpsed Steven Berkoff (before he gets a shuriken shoved into him by Storm Shadow) get short shrift here, but Byung-Hun Lee is a good fighter and proficient enough in English that I’d like to see him in his own martial arts film.

 

The action in this film isn’t as flamboyant as in the first film, but in its own way just as enjoyable. I especially enjoyed a nice car/bike chase through narrow Paris streets that has a cute ending, too. All of the performances here are terrific, and the film is lightweight fun. For some, that’ll be enough. Not every film has to be “Citizen Kane”, and if you’re not entertained by this film, maybe it says more about you than it does about the film.

 

Rating: B-