MOVIE REVIEW – Red 2

Cast: Bruce Willis, John Malkovich, Anthony Hopkins,
Catherine Zeta-Jones, Mary-Louise Parker, Helen Mirren,
Byung-hun Lee
Direction: Dean Parisot
Genre: Action
Duration: 1 hour 56 minutes

Story: Retired black-ops CIA agent Frank Moses teams up with his fellow agents in a quest to locate a missing and deadly nuclear device. Movie Review: The idea of retired CIA operatives (read: killers) being pressed back into service in the face of mortal danger isn’t new. In this case, the fun lies in the execution. And with the kind of multifaceted cast that this film has, there’s bound to be some surprises.

Frank (Willis) has settled down with Sarah ( Mary- Louise Parker, from the first part of *Red*) into a somewhat humdrum routine. It turns out that Frank and his former eccentric and intelligent partner Marvin Boggs (Malkovich, excellent) helped smuggle a nuclear device called ‘Nightshade’ (a metal briefcase containing a nuclear bomb) into Russia during the Cold War.

Boggs subsequently faked his own death to get off the espionage radar, until the present day. The US government decides that they want the device and declare Boggs, Frank and Sarah to be terrorists. And so, the chase begins. Russian agent Katja (Zeta-Jones), who also happens to be Frank’s past paramour, is after Nightshade too. The Pentagon enlists MI6 agent Victoria ( Helen Mirren) and hit-man Han Cho Bai ( Byung-hun Lee) to locate them.

It turns into a pan-European chase. Only Edward Bailey (Hopkins, totally on point), the scientist who created Nightshade, can help them find it. Juxtaposed in the midst of all this action are Frank and Sarah’s relationship issues. And even in the midst of all the action, there’s never a missed opportunity for the couple to receive relationship advice from anyone, be it the bumbling Boggs, Han of the furious fisticuffs or even cold-blooded Victoria.

There are some tantalizing twists and turns that keep you looking forward to what happens next. Willis does his action-comedy routine adroitly. With nicely-timed sequences stitched together and gags galore, the humour in the film positively crackles! Or, as Bailey often says, “Jolly good!”

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