Review of RED 2 (2013) by Jonathan H — 16 Feb 2014

I really enjoyed the first movie, an OTT but incredibly fun action-comedy about retired (& extremely dangerous) CIA agents who are targets for assassination due to the secrets they know. This sequel however is just formulaic straight off the Hollywood production line hokum which possesses nothing which made the original film such fun to watch.

The story is practically the same, Frank Moses (Willis) is an assassination target because of knowledge he possesses from his days in the field and he and his allies go on the run to solve why they're targets before they end up six feet under.

The problem here is that the story is completely uninteresting and all the cast members just look like they're in it for a paycheck and nothing else. John Malkovich stole the first movie as a paranoid retired agent but in this he just plays a regular sidekick with nothing much about him. Mary Louise Parker was charmingly funny in the first movie as Willis' love interest, but in this she's irritating to the point that you really don't care if she lives or dies. The worst cast member by far is Catherine Zeta-Jones as a Russian secret agent (seriously). I find Zeta-Jones absolutely abhorrent and watching her trying to carve out a performance in this made me hope that I was also a target for assassination.

The only person who can hold their head up high in all this mess is Helen Mirren, reprising her role as an ex-MI6 assassin.

A very unimpressive sequel and nothing more than a cash-grab. Lazy filmmaking.