Retired CIA assassin Frank Moses (Bruce Willis) is trying to live a normal life with his girlfriend Sarah Ross (Mary-Louise Parker).  He is approached by his paranoid friend Marvin Boggs (John Malkovich) at Costco and he wants Frank to come with him.  Soon Marvin appears to be killed by an explosion in his car in the parking lot and Frank is taken into custody by a debrief team at Marvin’s funeral.   Soon Frank finds his life in danger due to a leak about a project called Nightshade, and he is on the run with Sarah and Marvin as they race to find out the truth about this conspiracy no one wants exposed.   They go to Paris to track down someone nicknamed The Frog and they are stopped by Katya (Catherine Zeta-Jones), a Russian secret agent that Frank once had a relationship with and Marvin refers to as Frank’s Kryptonite.   Meanwhile, some people in the US Intelligence community send a top contact killed called Han (Lee Byung-hun) to kill Frank and MI-6 hires Victoria (Helen Mirren) to kill Frank too.  They find out the truth all leads to the past which involves Nightshade and a guy locked up in a mental asylum.

 

RED 2 is the comical follow up to the action comedy RED.  The sequel is more of the same as the characters are thrown into more action situations with bits of humor.  Malkovich is funny as always, but Mary-Louise Parker manages to steal the show in several scenes where Lee Byung-hun even has his moments.  Bruce Willis is better in RED 2 than he was in the last DIE HARD, but he isn’t as good as he was in the excellent LOOPER.  I enjoyed RED 2 and it makes me want to go back to watch the first RED again.  The action and comedy flows fast and furious in this sequel.  It has a variety of locations as the Red sequel takes the series to an international level as it combines old spy thrillers with comedy and spins it for today’s age as government assassins like Frank are trying to survive in a world that left them behind or so it seems as the government tries to cover up their sins.   RED 2 is an enjoyable sequel that fans of the first one will enjoy for the laughs and the action (which sometimes is a little over-the-top).

 

This movie review is (c)7-22-2013 David Blackwell and cannot be reprinted without permission.  Send all comments to feedback@enterline-media.com

 

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