RED 2: Starring Bruce Willis, John Malkovich, Mary-Louise Parker, Helen Mirren, Anthony Hopkins, Byung- Hun Lee, Catherine Zeta-Jones, Neal McDonough, Brian Cox, Tim Piggott-Smith. Directed by Dean Parisot. 116 minutes. Rated M (Violence and coarse language).
RED was an entertaining surprise of 2010. It was an action adventure with a number of retired secret agents emerging to collaborate and defend themselves from an enemy.
The plot was in some way standard, except for the veterans not only going into action but prevailing. Bruce Willis was the leader, Morgan Freeman an associate as was John Malkovich.
Helen Mirren surprised her fans by appearing as a very calm and cultured but deadly assassin. Mary-Louise Parker was drawn into the action despite herself. And Brian Cox was an enemy from the past who was still infatuated with Helen Mirren.
There were lots of good lines and ironic situations. Most of them are gathered together again.
While the entertaining novelty is not there, most fans of the original film will be pleased to see the group reassemble for action.
Willis is once again the leader. The film opens with him, quite domesticated, buying equipment in a supermarket accompanied by Parker with whom he is living and whom he is continually trying to protect.
Up pops Malkovich with a warning that information about a crisis from the late seventies, a bomb entitled Nightshade, has appeared online with their names mentioned. Again they become targets.
Willis is picked up and interrogated but the interview is interrupted by a military attack led by a relentless Neal McDonough.
In the meantime there is concern at MI6 and the head phones Victoria, Mirren. She warns Willis and the team go into action, discovering a scientist who has been secluded for 32 years. He is the inventor of Nightshade. And then the location shifts to Moscow, the search for Nightshade in the tunnels under the city.
Needless to say, there are lots of complications, twists, betrayals and explosions.
Perhaps the last place we would be expecting for the next location would be the Iranian embassy in London. But there are various shenanigans leading to a car chase through Central London, climaxes at an airport, and an explosive, satisfactory ending.
Willis is rather the straight man in this film with Malkovich having most of the one-liners and ironic remarks. Which is not to downplay the dialogue and quips from Mirren.
Parker is much stronger this time, instructed by Malkovich in techniques and military jargon, and playing a substantial role.
There are some other substantial benefits, especially with Hopkins as the scientist, a mixture of your bubbly British grandfather and Hannibal Lector. Catherine Zeta-Jones is a Russian operative.
And there is also an assassin from Hong Kong, past associate of the group but now commissioned to assassinate Willis. He is the striking Korean actor, Byung-hun Lee, who appeared in the GI Joe films and The Good, the Bad and the Weird. Probably a quite satisfying sequel for the fans of the original.
Fr Peter Malone MSC is an associate of the Australian Catholic Office for Film and Broadcasting.
