Movie Review–Red 2

When Marvin (John Malkovich) tracks down Frank (Bruce Willis) and Sarah (Mary-Louise Parker) to warn them of his latest conspiracy theory, it doesn’t take long to find out that he’s on to something. Before you know it, they’re on the run and being shot at in almost a half a dozen different world locations.

This movie picks up sort of after the last one and we find Frank & Sarah settling in to a nice cozy routine. Frank is all about protecting his love and his love is longing for the danger and action of spy life. What follows along with the action and explosions is the help from friends who truly want Frank and Sarah to work things out. If only our friends were like that in real life! What’s funny is the odd moments when they start talking about the relationship, but I guess you can focus like that when you’ve been shot at so many times over the years.

The characters are as good as ever. Frank is the same old business-as-usual ex-black ops, while Marvin has gotten a little more paranoid and zanier. Malkovich really works the character. Mary-Louise Parker also gets more time with Sarah and like Pepper Potts in IRON MAN 3, she sees more action and handles it very well. Helen Mirren as Victoria is back and as bad-*** as ever. I remarked when I saw RED that there was something about an older woman with an automatic weapon in her hand, and after this, I’m in love. As Ivan (yes, Brian Cox returns) watches, Victoria nonchalantly takes out guards from the privacy of a hilltop picnic spot. Ivan comments on her beauty, but especially her feet and how the toes curl right before she pulls the trigger . . . . well, in our defense, she was wearing stockings with the seam down the back of the calf. If you young men have never witnessed a woman wearing those, then you haven’t witnessed class. And all the more class when she’s got that rifle in her hands.

Well, didn’t mean for that half of a paragraph to turn into an ode for older classier women. So, on to Sir Anthony Hopkins. The befuddled old scholar who was the core of the mission that has everyone in an uproar. Now we find that he’s been in confinement for 32 years. While watching his Professor Edward Bailey, Hopkins goes from genius to dementia patient and back with skill. His character becomes the linch pin in the movie and Hopkins plays it very well.

Catherine-Zeta Jones and Byung-hun Lee give us Katja, the Russian agent, and Han, the Korean assassin with a grudge against Frank. There characters weren’t really needed to push the plot along but the side-story with Sarah and Katja is hilarious! You’ll also find a familiar face in David Thewlis, better known as Remus Lupin, playing the Frog, another operative with info.

I found this movie a non-stop action-packed ride with very little time to get boring. The action scenes are great, with everyone having there moment to shine. The plot is a basic run-of-the-mill plot, but then again, I’m not watching it for the plot, I’m watching it for the characters.

Let me know what you thought of the movie or why you didn’t go see it!

Red is a mini-series that was published in 2003 and 2004 by Homage Comics with writer Warren Ellis and Cully Hamner doing the art work.