Red 2

**
Release Date: August 2nd 2013

Retired C.I.A. agent Frank Moses reunites his unlikely team of elite operatives for a global quest to track down a missing portable nuclear device.

Director: Dean Parisot (Galaxy Quest, Fun with Dick and Jane)

Starring: Bruce Willis, John Malkovich, Mary-Louise Parker, Helen Mirren, Catherine Zeta-Jones, Anthony Hopkins, Byung-hun Lee, David Thewlis

What an amazing cast to have in a film. Nothing can go wrong with such acting prowess, unless it's let down by a poor, poor script. For Red 2, this is exactly the case.

It starts off with DC comic style sequences, preparing us for something big. Instead, we are shoved into a Costco, where Frank Moses (Willis) is loving normality, but possibly too much, as little remains of his 'Retired and Extremely Dangerous' attitude.

This is short lived however, as Marvin (Malkovich) approaches (almost) unseen to announce that he's being followed. Insert fake death, followed by a shambles of a plot, where Frank and Marvin were listed as participating in an operation codenamed Nightshade. The MI6 order Victoria (Mirren) to kill them, whilst a contract killer (Byung-hun Lee) does the same.

Now, whilst the plot never really thickens, and releasing our interest, the Red gang (consisting of Frank, Marvin and Sarah, played by MLP) fly across various different cities (Hong Kong, Paris, Moscow, England) in order to find information unbeknownst to them.

A lot of things are missing in Red 2. The first, which cannot be undone to keep with consistency, is Morgan Freeman. He was such a central character that his company is sorely missed. Helen Mirren does not have much screen time this time round. It's left to Malkovich, Willis and Parker, but the latter is frightfully annoying. Sarah does nothing but disrupt their plans and lacks the skill as a comfortable, female lead.

Red 2 aims high in comedy value but can't quite reach the first installment. Too much time is spent lingering on the unimportant, mainly, Marvin's facial expressions. Where laughs should be big, they fizzle out and die. Even appearances from Catherine Zeta-Jones and Anthony Hopkins cannot make this any better, neither displaying any stand out thrills. Byung-hun Lee's Han Cho Bai is the odd one out, showing connotations of a child wanting to play with maturer personnel.

Overview: Nowhere near as good as the first. Tries hard, but fails even harder.