RED 2

US, 2013, 116 minutes, Colour.
Bruce Willis, John Malkovich, Mary- Louise Parker, Helen Mirren, Anthony Hopkins, Byung- Hun Lee, Catherine Zeta- Jones, Neal Mc Donough, Brian Cox, Tim Piggott- Smith.
Directed by Dean Parisot.

Red was an entertaining surprise of 2010. It was an action adventure with a number of retired secret agents emerging to collaborate and defend themselves from an enemy. The plot was in some way standard, except for the veterans not only going into action but prevailing. Bruce Willis was the leader, Morgan Freeman an associate as was John Malkovich. Helen Mirren surprised her fans by appearing as a very calm and cultured but deadly assassin. Mary-Louise? Parker was drawn into the action despite herself. And Brian Cox was an enemy from the past who was still infatuated with Helen Mirren. There were lots of good lines and ironic situations.

Most of them are gathered together again. While the entertaining novelty is not there, most fans of the original film will be pleased to see the group reassemble for action. Bruce Willis is once again the leader. The film opens with him, quite domesticated, buying equipment in a supermarket accompanied by Mary- Louise Parker with whom he is living and whom he is continually trying to protect. Up pops John Malkovich with a warning that information about a crisis from the late seventies, a bomb entitled Nightshade, has appeared online with their names mentioned. Again they become targets.
Willis is picked up and interrogated but the interview is interrupted by a military attack led by a relentless Neal Mc Donough. Needless to say there is a battle, much of it in a library, and an escape.

In the meantime there is concern at MI 6 and the head phones Victoria, Helen Mirren, who has just completed some assassinations and is dissolving the bodies in an acid bath. She warns Willis are and the team go into action, discovering a scientist who has been secluded for 32 years. He is the inventor of Nightshade.

And then the location shifts to Moscow, the search for Nightshade in the tunnels under the city. The one Harry Moscow,Victoria makes contact with Ivan, Brian Cox, who is to infatuated and there is an amusing scene of his lying back romantically commenting on her as she lets fly with a machine gun.
Needless to say, there are lots of complications, some twists, some betrayals, and plenty of explosions. There is a helicopter crash with the quotable line from Victoria, ‘don’t tell me that your’e about to crash with a weapon of mass destruction on board!’.

Perhaps the last place we would be expecting for the next location would be the Iranian embassy in London. But there are various shenanigans leading to a car chase through Central London, climaxes at an airport, and a, literally explosive, satisfactory ending.

Bruce Willis is rather the straight man in this film with John Malkovich having most of the one liners and ironic remarks. Which is not to downplay the dialogue and quips from Helen Mirren. Mary Louise Parker is much stronger this time, instructed by Malkovich in techniques and military jargon, and playing a substantial role in the climax.

There are some othersubstantial benefits, especially with Anthony Hopkins as the scientist, a mixture of your bubbly British grandfather and Hannibal Lecter. Catherine Zeta-Jones? is a Russian operative. And there is also an assassin from Hong Kong, past associate of the group but now commissioned to assassinate Willlis. He is the striking Korean actor, Byung-hun Lee, who appeared in the GI Joe films and The Good, the Bad and the Weird..
Probably a quite satisfying sequel for the fans of the original.

1. Enjoyable entertainment? Novelty, characters, situations, twists and ironies, comic touches?


2. The continuation from the original? Bruce Wallace, John Malkovich, Mary- Louise Parker, Helen Mirren, Brian Cox? The new characters?

3. The American settings, ordinary, the supermarket, the CIA offices, government offices? The UK and in my six? Moscow, the Kremlin, the tunnels? The Iranian embassy in London? Interiors? The airport? The jaunty musical score?

4. A connection with the original? The supermarket, Marvin meeting Frank and Sarah, the domestic life, Marvin explaining the threats? His death, going to the funeral, the pin in his hand, his seemingly being dead, Frank’s eulogy and praising him as a killer and on assembler? The next encounter, Marvin alive, the explosion? The revelation of the Russian plot online and Marvin and Frank’s names? The bomb? Nightshade?

5. Bruce Willis and his style as Frank, nonchalant, experienced, tough, yet retired, becoming domestic, his care for Sarah, Marvin continually instructing Sarah in tactics and terminology? His being taken by Jack Horton, handcuffs, the interrogation, the attacks, Frank and the library, his manoeuvres, the guns, the grenades, the body count? Marvin and Sarah outside? The jokes, a tough guy?

6. Horton, his men, pursuing Frank? Utter ruthlessness? The rogue general and his death? The cover-up with the Government? Deal with Bailey? His death?

7. The shift to Hong Kong, Han, his past with Frank, the hired killer, the dapper man, the commission from the Americans, the playing of the payments? Going to the master, the dialogue, his surreptitiously slitting the throat, his being hired by the Americans to kill Frank? The cash, his own plane, his plan?

8. The United Kingdom, Victoria and the phone call, the information about Bailey and Nightshade, yet the head’s visit to her apartment, the dead bodies, her dissolving them with acid in the bath, the polite phone call to warn Frank that she was hired to kill him? The interrogation? Her escape, bringing Frank, meeting him to help, discovering Bailey imprisoned, her performance as the mad queen and quoting Shakespeare? Bailey and her reaction, the information about his mania?

9. Again to Moscow, the group in Moscow, the soldiers, going to the old safe house, searching for Nightshade, the Kremlin, Bailey and his help, the location, the pizza house, Sarah standing security, the flirting soldier?

10. The character of Bailey, the 32 years, enclosed, his past, his skill in producing bombs, gases? His being found, the room, the blackboard, the formulas, his loss of memory, the shoes with the bomb, his boasts, Cuba and Castro? His helping them to find the tunnels, the location of the bomb? His turning, taking the bomb, his escape? His deal with the Americans? The money, going on the plane, the gases and killing the soldiers, his killing Jack Horton, saying that he did not see that coming?

11. Katya, Catherine Zeta Jones, her past, Russian official, arrival in the US, her fondness for Frank, the kiss, Sarah’s reaction, the contact? In Moscow, at the meeting, helping Frank, the rivalry with Sarah, her death?

12. Moscow, Victoria, meeting up with Ivan, the shooting, his romantic talk, her toes?

13. Han, his plane, his arrival, the confrontation with Frank, the fight, the martial arts, his being persuaded to change and help?

14. France, the spy with the taste in wines?

15. To London, the Iranian embassy, Marvin as an asylum seeker, Frank and Sarah getting inside? Sarah and the restaurant, charming the minister after being slapped, the gun, her gift? Victoria as the chauffeur, Han pretending to be a plumber, Marvin exploding the toilets?

16. The escape, the chase through Central London, Marvin and Sarah and the erratic driving, Victoria and Han, the pursuit, trucks and the crashes?

17. Frank, Marvin, the helicopter, being shot at, love and trying to disarm the bomb, not being able to? The time limit?

18. Frank and Sarah up on the plane, the confrontation with Bailey, his taking the bomb, but planting it in the plane? The timing, the explosion, Bailey saying that he did not see this coming?

19. The humour, Marvin and his amusing lines? Victoria and her ironies? The tough attitudes? Yet the sisterly conversations between the two about romance?

20. The ending in Caracas, happy ever after?

21. An entertaining concoction, showing that elderly characters can still work in the James Bond field?