Review of RED 2 (2013) by Andrew L — 07 Dec 2013

While I really enjoyed RED, I kind of thought that Red 2 wasn't going be as good, and I was right. The movie is enjoyable but the nearly 2 hour run time makes the crazy action scenes lose flavor by the end and the comedy is greatly missed. The cast is still as good as ever. Bruce Willis, Jon Malkovich, Helen Mirren, and Mary Louise-Parker are all great but Anthony Hopkins seems to be the only one who is giving a full performance.

The biggest issue I had with the movie were the all too constant scene changes when it would turn a character into a comic book drawing. I understand that those were there to make transitions less confusing, and to try and add spice to the movie but it never felt right. The idea for the movie seemed very lazy and these moments in particular seemed like a way to cover up the lack of good storytelling.

The movie is your traditional over-the-top action movie with not enough comedy. The reason why the first movie was so good was the writing and clever comedic timing by the cast. This go round, the writing was rushed and very lazy and the cast had fun with the dialogue and you can clearly tell that they enjoyed making the movie but all of it just doesn't connect well with the end result. It is very unfortunate that the quality suffered with Red 2. If there is a Red 3, I really hope that the quality is up for the sake of the franchise. Definitely not worth the rent.