Still retired, still extremely dangerous.
DC Comics may be owned by Warner Brothers, but a few
properties sometime slip through their fingers. Red was a 3-issue mini-series by Warren Ellis and Cully Hamner and
published by DC imprint Wildstorm. The source material was about a retired CIA
agent seeking revenge after his former employers order his death. Summit
Entertainment bought the rights, perhaps to diversify their portfolio from the
sparkly vampires and YA novel adaptations. Screenwriters Erich and Jon Hoeber
turned the original comics into a zippy team-up of A-list actors and they do so
again with the sequel, Red 2.
Bruce Willis returns as Frank Moses, a retired operative
looking forward to living some semblance of a normal life with his girlfriend,
Sarah (Mary-Louise Parker). He's content to shop for frozen shrimp and power
washers at Costco, but Sarah yearns for the globe-trotting action she witnessed
when they first met. She gets her wish when a document posted on Wikileaks
purports the involvement of Frank and Marvin Boggs (John Malkovich) in a Cold
War operation code-named Nightshade, wherein an experiment nuclear weapon was
smuggled into Moscow. Once again, a seedy faction within the CIA wants Frank
dead and they've sent their best man, Jack Horton (Neal McDonough), along with
Korean assassin Han Cho Bai (Byung-hun Lee) to do the deed. Not to mention the
British and the Russians want to get their hands on the device by any means
necessary.
Part of the appeal of the Red films is the chance to see A-list actors known for serious fare
participating in a lighthearted action movie. Red 2 knows which side its bread is buttered and relies solely on
its ensemble. There aren’t many joys in life to match the sight of Helen Mirren
wielding a sniper rifle or pouring acid into a bathtub to dispose of a corpse
while in ritzy eveningwear. John Malkovich also has fun as the unhinged Marvin
Boggs. The ranks are bolstered by veterans Anthony Hopkins as Dr. Edward
Bailey, the device’s inventor, who has spent decades locked away in an insane
asylum and Catherine Zeta-Jones as a sultry femme fatale. Byung-hun Lee, one of
the newer faces to American audiences, gets some great action sequences, including
one where he beats up several cops while handcuffed to a glass door. He’s a
welcome addition since his co-stars aren’t nearly as nimble.
The script by the Hoebers can hardly muster any sort of surprising
twists or substance whatsoever. On the other hand, the picture moves at such a
rapid clip that you hardly have the time to lament such things. Title cards
utilizing comic book art in Hamner’s style help to remind us that we are
watching a cartoon come to life.
Red 2 is absurd
and thinly plotted, but it helps that the cast is comprised of actors who can
lend weight to such weightless material.
Rating: ** (*****)
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