Disc Reviews

RED 2 Review

• 13th Nov 2013

The Retired and Extremely Dangerous team return for a second helping of 12A rated action after the moderate success of the original comic book adaptation.

Bruce Willis is clearly having fun playing Frank Moses. He hasn’t been allowed to dial it up this big since he played Eddie Hawkins in Hudson Hawk. But despite Willis being the head honcho, it’s the likes of Mary-Louise Parker, Helen Mirren and John Malkovich that are likely to steal most of the attention – despite newcomers Catherine Zeta-Jones, Anthony Hopkins and Byung Hun-Lee also vying for attention.

This time round Frank is lured out of his happy yet docile retirement by the arrival of Marvin (Malkovich). Once again going against his will, Frank is forced into doing the kind of work he left behind years ago, but having a  thrill seeking other half (Parker) doesn’t help matters.

RED 2 may still be running the same joke as the first film, but when you have this starry cast to detract you with their pantomime performances then it’s an easy couple of hours spent having fun with familiar faces. This one is pretty much what it says on the tin, without ever making an effort to do anything else.

RED 2’s biggest failing perhaps is a rather sloppy and uneventful finale involving far too many characters with very, very, little to do. Perhaps next time they will think about evening the odds when it comes to levelling good guys against bad guys instead of simply turning a large portion of them around half way through the film.

Steven Hurst