Tuesday, January 14, 2014

Red 2 (2013)


 “What happens in the Kremlin stays in the Kremlin!”

            Not very often do movie sequels work out. It is very rare that they are good let alone better than the first one. Red 2 is one of those rare movies that is even better than the first. It takes all the fun exciting elements of the first Red and turns them up ten notches.
            Frank Moses (Bruce Willis) is enjoying his nice quiet retired life with his girlfriend Sarah (Mary- Louise Parker) strolling through Costco when his old friend Marvin (John Malkovich) finds him. Marvin brings up the fact that Frank has not killed anyone in months. Frank likes that fact though, he is not looking for a fight or to kill anyone. Meanwhile, Sarah seems to be the one who wants all the excitement back in her life she seems to be bored in the quiet life. Marvin tells Frank that information leaked about an old Cold War weapon called Nightshade and their names are mentioned in the information.
            Their lives soon get turned upside down when Marvin “dies”. As Frank and Sarah leave the church Frank is taken in by federal agents. He is taken to a facility where he is being interrogated. While Frank is being interrogated a man named Jack Horton (Neal McDonough) comes storming through the building with a group of operatives who are looking to take Frank out. Of course Frank manages to escape and gets to Marvin (who is not dead he just faked his own death) and Sarah.
            As this is happening a hit is put on Frank’s life and the person sent to kill him is a Korean assassin named Han Cho Bai who has a big time grudge against Frank.
            In London, people are also after Victoria (Helen Mirren). MI6 rings her and tells her she has been assigned to kill Frank. She in turns rings up Frank and tells him about the hit.
            Frank, Marvin and Sarah travel to Paris to question a weapons dealer nicknamed The Frog. In Paris Frank comes across an old flame named Katja (Catherine Zeta-Jones). Katja is a Russian and she and Frank have a romantic as well as enemy relationship. Sarah is not thrilled when she sees how hypnotized Frank is by Katja and is constantly asking if they can kill Katja.         
            The team eventually finds out that the Nightshade weapon was developed by a man named Dr. Edward Bailey (Anthony Hopkins). He has been in an asylum for thirty-two years by MI6. Frank, Sarah, and Victoria bust him out. Bailey tells them his weapon that had been lost in Russia is hidden beneath the Kremlin. When they get the weapon they find out that Bailey was locked away because he wanted to activate the weapon not, as they had been told, because he was crazy.
            The cast is once again brilliant. And once again Mary-Louise Parker and John Malkovich steal the entire movie. Parker I was dying laughing with, again, because of her facial expressions they were so hilarious. I loved how jealous Sarah was with Katja and Parker just knocked those scenes out. Her funniest scene was at the end… and that is all I will say because it is too funny to give away. Helen Mirren I enjoyed more here than in the first one because she was just completely bad ass. She shot off more guns and killed more people than the first time. One of her first scenes was her cleaning up two dead bodies she had made and then destroying them in her hotel bathroom in the bathtub by dowsing them with chemicals and all without batting an eye. That is an awesome bitch in my eyes. Catherine Zeta- Jones is not in the movie for very long which is a shame because she and Bruce Willis worked very well together in their scenes. I hate seeing Neal McDonough as a bad guy but he was very good. I always enjoy seeing him in things. Anthony Hopkins was alright he did not make too much of an impression on me.
            From beginning to the end of Red 2 I was laughing and immensely entertained. Red 2 had a perfect balance of action, comedy, and drama. It is just all around a very well made movie from the acting, writing, direction, action to just everything. I highly suggest seeing this movie especially if you need to let go and have a good laugh. 

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