I’m pretty bored of talking about Bruce Willis and that interview by now. Plus the details of Red 2 are pretty hazy because no-one’s been talking about the film. The old gang of Bruce Willis, Mary-Louise Parker (whoooooooo?), Helen Mirren and John Malkovich are reunited to track down a nuclear bomb that may or may not exist, created by ‘mad scientist’ Anthony Hopkins. Genius casting right there; Hopkins lulls you into thinking how sweet he is as doddery old man who’s losing his marbles but then he rips the carpet right out from underneath your feet. Malkovich on the other hand can only manage a bizarre, cross-eyed pout to the camera when he’s called on to be funny. If you want decent comedy, maybe go elsewhere or Youtube Mirren’s scenes when it’s out on DVD.
If you want OAP action though, Red 2 is your go-to film. There's a great car vs motorbike chase scene and let's be honest, Bruce Willis still owns the intimidating, angry, bald, action hero role like no other (not that anyone else would really be allowed to try). You do feel in very safe hands and even newcomer to the Red franchise Byang-hun Lee is so incredibly skilled in the martial arts that it's exciting watching him do his thing on screen. Plot goes down the 'no-one really cares' route, especially when they jump from Paris to London to Moscow to London to another city somewhere and it almost doesn't matter as long as we see explosions and casual gunfire.
Red 2 would have benefited from binning off Mary-Louise Parker (whose face is so frozen that Madame Tussauds should think about employing her -miaow!) and maybe spending a bit more time and money on the script-writing. You might not regret seeing it but you'll wish they had resurrected Morgan Freeman.
3*
PS I've just seen that Die Hardest was announced back in April. FFS Bruce, give it a rest already!
