Red 2

Rating : 6/10
Release Date : 19th July, 2013
Time : 116 minutes
Director : Dean Parisot; Writers : John and Erich Hoeber based on characters created by Warren Ellis and Cully Hamner; Music : Alan Silverstri
Starring : Bruce Willis, John Malkovich, Mary-Louise Parker, Helen Mirren, Catherine Zeta Jones, Byung-Hun Lee, Anthony Hopkins, Brian Cox, Neal McDonough, David Thewlis

One of those, like the first one, where its all about the ride rather than rationality, as we watch our Retired & Extremely Dangerous lot, come together again, on another romp, this time a global one, criss-crossing Paris, London and Moscow in search of Nightshade

Nightshade was a secret plan, one about which our boys, Bruce or John, had no clue but thanks to a Wikipedia article, are now implicated, leading to all hell breaking loose. Chased by the CIA, MI6, a deadly Korean contract killer with a personal agenda (Byung-Hun) and the KGB (in no particular order), the guns never stop firing, nor the bombs going off. Bruce’s inability to cope with his thrill-seeking girlfriend’s (Mary-Louise) desire to be in the thick of the action forms a charming thread through the narrative.

Along the way we meet some familiar faces (Helen Mirren, Brian Cox) and some new ones (a horrendously made up Catherine Zeta Jones, the cheerful battering ram, Neal McDonough, the wine-loving, secrets repository, David Thewlis, and the amazingly intelligent Anthony Hopkins). Some are good guys. Some bad. But all over the top, determined to go down blazing…

I don’t know if the intended target audience for this are senior citizens or those who one day aspire to become one. But its great fun, enjoyable as long as it isn’t taken too seriously.