Red 2 Review

Red. Not the color. The acronym standing for Retired Extremely Dangerous. Red was a movie that came out in October of 2010 and turned out to be a surprise hit. When I went into Red, I guess I was slightly uniformed about it, but I was expecting a really fun action movie with old people. Yes, that is what I got, but the high level of comedy I didn't expect. I was thus super entertained by the action and also laughing my head off the entire movie. Very well done and perfectly cast. Sometimes when sequels get announced I groan a bit because Hollywood is very sequel happy, but in this case when I heard about Red 2 I was super excited and the movie easily made my list of 15 movies of 2013 that I was looking forward to. I have been disappointed with several of those movies already, but Red 2 did not disappoint. Definitely a movie I would recommend.

In Red 2, we get a lot of the same things as we did in Red and as I was thinking about it, it reminded me of what happened with National Treasure 1 and 2. Completely different movies, I know, but National Treasure 2 was the same thing as National Treasure. Personally I liked both about the same, but some people didn't like that idea. Same thing here. Red 2 is almost the same movie as Red just with a different story line. Some people I can already tell are complaining about that, as is evidenced by its mid-30's Rottentomatoes score, but I had no problem with that. The old saying comes to mind "if it ain't broken, don't fix it." The formula for Red worked really well and they kept that same formula for Red 2 and once again it worked great. Not all movies can pull that off, but Red 2 did.

What is the basic story line you ask? Well, not that it's anything deep and profound, but I'm not going to dive into that too much. What I will say is that once again people are out to kill Frank, Bruce Willis' character, and so he goes out on the run with the same crew to figure out why and to stop it. Simple enough, but it works and is very fun. What I do want to talk about is the cast. In Red 2, we bring back the whole gang from Red, the one's that make sense to bring back anyways (if you've seen Red, you'll know what I'm talking about). The crew includes Bruce Willis, John Malkovich, Mary-Louise Parker, Helen Mirren, and Brian Cox. I've always enjoyed Bruce Willis movies and he is great in this one like he always has been. His character Frank is still together with his now girlfriend Sarah (Mary-Louise Parker). They are trying to live the normal quiet life, but are dragged into this new situation. Sarah has come along way since getting kidnapped in the first and is now gung-ho on adventure. The tension between the two is quite hilarious throughout as at first Frank is trying to calm her down, which is hard with Marvin (John Malkovich) around, who initially is the cause of the adventure this time around and the three of them are the main trio in this. The chemistry between the three is just plain brilliant and Marvin is as crazy as ever. Victoria (Helen Mirren) and Ivan (Brian Cox) come into the picture a bit later. Helen Mirren I will have to say is one of the coolest older ladies ever and her and Brian Cox have some great moments in this one, just like they did in the first.

Adding to this already great cast is the new additions that really make the sequel work. Catherine Zeta-Jones comes on as Frank's ex-girlfriend and that sparks some great moments between him, her, and Sarah. Neal McDonough takes the Karl Urban role this time as the man who is initially hunting down Frank and he is quite brilliant. If you don't know McDonough, he is the dad/opposing coach in the movie Forever Strong and he plays a similar serious, down to business type of role in this movie that works really well. If you've never seen Forever Strong, stop what you are doing and go fix that. Also added to this movie is Byung-hun Lee from G.I. Joe movies, David Thewlis from Harry Potter, and of course the great Anthony Hopkins. I'll leave those three as more of a mystery as to what their roles are in the movie, but all three are quite brilliant, especially Anthony Hopkins. He is SO good in this movie!

Overall, Red 2 brings a lot of awesome action as well as tons of humor thanks to a once again brilliant cast one-ups the first one. If you liked Red, you should love Red 2. If you hated Red or weren't impressed, don't expect to be won over because it brings much of the same. Personally I loved Red and I also loved Red 2. Which one is better? Well, that is hard to say. Both are fantastic. But due to an extremely well done third act in Red 2 led by the brilliance of Anthony Hopkins, I am actually going to give the slight edge to Red 2 and award the movie a solid 9 out of 10.