Red 2 (2013)
TOMATOMETER
Critics Consensus: While it's still hard to argue with its impeccable cast or the fun they often seem to be having, Red 2 replaces much of the goofy fun of its predecessor with empty, over-the-top bombast.
Critics Consensus: While it's still hard to argue with its impeccable cast or the fun they often seem to be having, Red 2 replaces much of the goofy fun of its predecessor with empty, over-the-top bombast.
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Movie Info
In RED 2, the high-octane action-comedy sequel to the worldwide sleeper hit, retired black-ops CIA agent Frank Moses reunites his unlikely team of elite operatives for a global quest to track down a missing portable nuclear device. To succeed, they'll need to survive an army of relentless assassins, ruthless terrorists and power-crazed government officials, all eager to get their hands on the next-generation weapon. The mission takes Frank and his motley crew to Paris, London and Moscow. … More- Rating:
- PG-13 (for pervasive action and violence including frenetic gunplay, and for some language and drug material)
- Genre:
- Drama , Action & Adventure
- Directed By:
- Dean Parisot
- Written By:
- Jon Hoeber , Erich Hoeber
- In Theaters:
- Jul 19, 2013 Wide
- On DVD:
- Nov 26, 2013
- US Box Office:
- $53.2M
Cast
-
Bruce Willis
as Frank Moses -
John Malkovich
as Marvin Boggs -
Mary-Louise Parker
as Sarah Ross -
Helen Mirren
as Victoria -
Anthony Hopkins
as Edward Bailey -
Byung-hun Lee
as Han Cho Bai
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LoginCritic Reviews for Red 2
All Critics (137) | Top Critics (36) | Fresh (58) | Rotten (79) | DVD (2)
Ultimately, it's popcorn nihilism without the big laughs that helped distract from the casual approach to life and death in 'Red'.
This is a likable, almost gentle comedy and also a violent action film about the possibility of a nuclear bomb going off in a major city.
Willis is self-evidently capable of kicking the asses of men considerably younger than himself. But at some point shouldn't he consider an alternative pastime?
No movie with this much ass-kicking should feel so lifeless.
Ridiculously action-packed and just as endearing, Red 2 is why we go to sequels despite our well-earned cynicism about studios churning them out.
It's nice to see oldsters cavorting in kaboom movies, but a little of this stuff goes a long way.
A highly-watchable but stilted sequel that serves as a complacent sequel to the fun original.
Much of the originality has faded and Morgan Freeman's absence is keenly felt, but the end result is still a fun, exciting adventure.
Red 2 fails to capture the fun of the first film, but manages to hold on to its weaker traits, such as a bloated runtime and an inundation of mindless action sequences, turning this into a rather forgettable affair.
The cookie-cutter action sequences - car chases, fireballs, shoot-outs - are so-so and whereas the first film had a giddy cheekiness to it, the vibe here just feels forced, a common trait of sequels we really weren't hankering for.
Who knows if teenagers will appreciate this type of actioner? No matter. They get plenty of films designed for them. You go, gramps!
The basic formula of the freefall of action, laughs and casting class of the 2010 first film is the same, but everything is less spontaneous, a little more forced and a tad overcooked this second time around... Mirren comes out best
RED 2's support cast (including the new additions) are punching hard for this sequel to be as fun as the original; however the diluted globetrotting and Willis' clear 'pay-check' performance make you wish they'd retired this series after the original.
RED 2 plays it pretty safe, carefully emulating the style and tone of its predecessor, so if you enjoyed the first one, RED 2 should tick the same boxes for you.
Silly but unapologetic entertainment.
About the best - and maybe the worst - that can be about RED 2 is that it is an exceedingly safe pick.
While we applaud the minds behind Red 2 for making a film for adults in a sea of movies for kids and teenage boys, they didn't actually make a good film for adults.
The Expendables meets The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel isn't an obviously winning formula.
Smart, breezy spy action, with an of-the-moment vibe that takes it post-post-9/11 and into the Wikileaks era of global politics.
Willis looks so tired, so lacking in vitality, that it's tempting to suggest he follow his character's lead and retire.
[A] tiresome sequel ...
The plot is all too generic, right down to the ticking-bomb climax. You can easily imagine it being taken off the shelf and handed to a bunch of younger actors with barely a tweak.
The trick to RED 2's success is its willingness to allow the actors to roar through all their greatest hits at the loudest possible volume.
The plot might not add up to much, but there's plenty of fire-fights, punch-ups and bristling one-liners to go round a cast so vast they could have called this The Extendables.
Like the first one, it's played for laughs in-between bouts of mayhem; most of the gags are off-target, though Mirren's Nancy Mitfordesque assassin gets a pretty good kill ratio.
Retired, extremely dull.
Audience Reviews for Red 2
This was a very enjoyable film. The story continues with the retired - and more dangerous than anybody else - agents. Frank and his comrades find themselves treading all over the globe and finding conflict at each stop.
If you haven't seen the first film, you can still enjoy this piece. You won't understand all of the relationships immediately, but the story stands on its own. And it does a very good job at that.
The movie was so much fun. It had clever and well-thought out jokes throughout the film. The jokes kept coming and were very skillfully timed.
The action was thrilling. Along with the jokes, non-stop action to get your blood pumping filled this film. They kept the same feel of cool, unreasonable stunts and explosions from the first movie, but they also added a lot more hand-to-hand combat, which was still very amusing to watch and excellently choreographed.
The acting was great and the story was well-written with actual twists. The soundtrack and sound effects made all the guns and explosions that much more convincing and enjoyable.
This film had a much higher body count than the last one, but still managed to keep it pretty light-hearted. If you liked the first one, this film will not disappoint. If you haven't seen the first one it's still very entertaining to watch. 4 Stars 3-23-14
Super Reviewer
Since its ridiculous nominee as 'Best Musical or Comedy Movie of the Year' in the Golden Globes, I think 'Red 2' has quite improving by attracted such another great cast such as Anthony Hopkins, Catherine Zeta-Jones, and a lovely performance from Lee Byung-hun.. But still, the important thing from this movie is not only Helen Mirren can shoot but so do Mary-Louise Parker! Well, I just hope they still considering making this franchise into a trilogy since I expecting another surprise, well I'm just joking..
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Super Reviewer
In my review of Taken, I spoke about two growing trends in mainstream filmmaking: "older protagonists as a reaction to a market saturated with youth, and weighty actors downsizing into trashy B-movies." The Expendables series and Liam Neeson's recent output find some of the most beloved actors of their period taking on roles that would have once been filled by people half their age and a quarter as talented.
Into this market driven by nostalgia and the need for pension plans comes Red 2, a sequel to one of the more slow-burning hits of 2010. Reuniting the original cast with a couple of new faces, it aims to bring a more overtly comic-book feel to a sub-genre built around nuts-and-bolts action thriller plots. The result is a little disappointing, not to say a little dull, but it's not without a few good moments.
As much as I objected to Taken, on grounds both structural and moral, I fully acknowledge the appeal of seeing older action stars - nay, just older actors - on screen in prominent, active and entertaining roles. Because so much of mainstream cinema is shaped around the demands of teenage boys, the range of roles available to actors becomes more restricted as they age. Unless you want to carve out a career playing Basil Exposition or people's grandparents, you're pretty much dead in the water by the age of 50.
A good benchmark from this perspective would be the films of Nigel Cole, such as Saving Grace and Calendar Girls. Both of these films are driven by older characters, who conform to some generic conventions but still feel like real people. While neither of these films are the most disciplined or structurally sound, they tell interesting stories which charm us and lead us to forgive or overlook their shortcomings.
While Cole's output wins outright in a fight over well-written female characters, Red 2 does have as much going for it behind the camera. Dean Parisot's output has been uneven, but he did helm the highly entertaining Galaxy Quest, once described by J. J. Abrams as "one of the best Star Trek movies ever made". Alan Silvestri, the film's composer, has a great record with Robert Zemeckis and more recently with Marvel. And the film is shot by Enrique Chediak, who did a really good job on 127 Hours and 28 Weeks Later.
Sadly, for all this build-up, none of the talent involved in Red 2 comes close to matching their reputations, on either side of the camera. Whatever the merits of its predecessor, this film is ultimately rather lacklustre in both its story and execution. While it's assembled in a workable enough manner to pass a couple of hours, it is in the end pretty forgettable fare, and considering who is involved that is the last thing that it should be.
Part of the problem lies in the attitudes of the cast. Todd Gilcrist wrote in his review that Bruce Willis "seems unmotivated to smile at all, much less offer a series of emotions that constitute a believable or compelling performance." While you may not agree with Gilcrist word for word, he does hit the nail on the head: none of the actors look like they're having fun. That wouldn't be a problem if the film were a sombre, depressing existential parable, but it is a problem when you're trying to make an upbeat action thriller with lots of jokes.
Much like Sean Connery, Willis is an actor who clearly betrays when he does and doesn't want to be in a given film. When he's confident in a script or having a blast on set, such as in Die Hard, Twelve Monkeys or Looper, he holds himself much more precisely and seems far more natural in his movements. When he's doing something purely because he needs the money, he slumps his shoulders, narrows his eyes and is much less responsive to his fellow actors. While this is by no means his worst performance, let alone his worst film, it does give off vibes of him only doing the part because he has to be that.
It's not just Willis that seemingly doesn't want to be involved. John Malkovich has been tetchy and irritable in other films (such as Shadow of the Vampire), but there's a weariness to his performance here which doesn't gel with the character's dynamic dialogue. Helen Mirren doesn't get a greal deal to do, and her attempts at deadpan humour just come across as flat readings. The only main actor who commits and engages to the required level is Byung-hun Lee, and his character seems to have escaped from a far better, far more interesting film.
The plot of Red 2 is decidedly episodic. Much of the film is built around set-pieces, either involving Lee's character wanting revenge on Willis or a third party becoming the target of either side. The set-pieces are technically accomplished, with good pyrotechnics, decent CGI and some realistic sound design, but there's not enough of any substance to link them together in a meaningful manner. To borrow from Shakespeare, it's a lot of sound and fury, signifying very little.
In slightly different hands, this could have been handled better. The red mercury buried beneath the Kremlin is a neat little plot device, and Brian Cox and Anthony Hopkins do wring the most they can out of their supporting roles, channeling the more thoughtful, more British spies present in The Ipcress File. All the little twists involving people changing sides which could have been used to drive the film are instead presented like the action sequences - as distractions, and nothing more.
The same goes for the romantic subplot-cum-love triangle that the script tries to tease out. There is potential (albeit well-worn potential) in both the female characters' main conceits, i.e. the inept love interest who finds herself caught up in events, and the old flame who puts the cat among the pigeons. But while Catherine Zeta-Jones takes to her costume well, it's ultimately a lot of under-developed flash, and Mary-Louise Parker isn't all that convincing.
In the midst of all this, it is more than possible to enjoy Red 2 as empty, disposable spectacle. It's clearly not trying (and failing) to make a lot of important political points, and its lack of pretension is to be applauded as much as its lack of ambition should be decried. If you only go to the cinema to see explosions, car crashes and famous people in various slow-motion poses, this will satisfy your appetite.
Red 2 is a disappointing action thriller which finds both cast and director falling short of their past potential. While the action is technically sound and there are a few witty or impressive moments (mainly involving Lee's character), it's ultimately too lackadaisical and episodic to cut the mustard. In the end it's not a bad film per se, just an aimless one which could have been a lot better with a tighter script and a stronger hand at the helm.
Super Reviewer
What made the original RED film so enjoyable is that it was something we'd never seen before, so obviously being a sequel, RED 2 suffers somewhat because we know what to expect. I still believe that RED 2 delivers more of what we all loved about the original, although it does wander into 'seen it all before, formulaic action film' territory in places. But so what, this is what we expected and wanted no? I think it's a shame that the film was panned on release, it's a fun action packed pop-corn film, above average and actually pretty funny.
MoreSuper Reviewer
Red 2 Quotes
- Marvin Boggs:
- Kids, what happens in the Kremlin stays in the Kremlin.
- The Frog:
- Why don't terrorists ever appreciate burgundy?
- Frank Moses:
- You gave her a gun?
- Marvin Boggs:
- It is America, Frank!
- Marvin Boggs:
- "If there's one thing I know, it's women and covert ops."
- Frank Moses:
- "That's two things."
- Han Cho Bai:
- "No, Grasshopper, it is not."
- Edward Bailey:
- I didn't see that comin'!
- Edward Bailey:
- I didn't see that coming!
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