RED 2

A blast of energy, idiocy and fun.

Great fun! Take it for what it is... Good ol' action!

A lot of sweet action sequences, just like the first one. Very predictable ending of course, but I didn't really care since I was so entertained. :)

After having recently watched "Expendables 3", which resembles RED 2 in that it features quite a few older, very well known actors and a lot of action, I was worried that this sequel would fall short of the original, too. However, my worries were unfounded because where Expendables does most things wrong, RED 2 was, while a little predictable, very fun to watch and I can recommend it wholeheartedly!

As expected, there is a lot of action from start to finish: Moses (Willis) and Boggs (Malkovich) are hunted because of their involvement in a top-secret mission in Russia during the cold war. Every major secret service (MI6, the Russians, CIA) is after them and a deadly device codenamed Nightshade, which the US scientist Bailey (Hopkins) developed and planted somewhere in Russia. However, only Bailey knows where exactly Nightshade is, but he is imprisoned in a high-security facility in London. After freeing him with the help of Victoria (Mirrer), who double-crossed the MI6 by doing so, the three set out for Moscow to retrieve Nightshade. There, only with the help of Katja (Zeta-Jones), a former lover of Moses and now high-ranking Russian military, they can evade capture by the Russian forces inside the Kremlin. When trying to leave the country with Nightshade, it turns out that Bailey made a deal with the CIA and thereby betrays Moses and Boggs and kills Katja. In another double-crossing, Bailey also kills the men from the CIA and plans to detonate Nightshade, an undetectable nuclear bomb, in London. Only the last-minute intervention by Boggs, Moses and his girlfriend Sarah (Parker) stops the catastrophe and they can detonate Nightshade in a plane with only Bailey on board. Throughout all this, a Korean professional killer tries to eliminate Moses, which adds additional entertainment.

Because of the interesting plot, which never gets boring thanks to the various plot twists and double-crossings, the good acting by all the lead actors (especially compared to the performance of the actors of Expendables 3, see above) and funny details, anecdotes as well as punchlines (Boggs stages his own funeral, Sarah is furiously jealous of Katja, Baileys has drug-induced senility and so much more) this sequel makes as want to watch more from the "retired but extremely dangerous" crew of ex-secrete agents!

Same as the first in setup, just with even more a-list stars. The story is slightly less good than the first, but the cast can make up for most of the difference. Just excellent entertainment.

Even better than the first. Incredibly fun, great cast, plenty of action.

Whilst the format is old and tired, and pretty predictable... The stellar performances of the cast mkae this an above average action movie with plenty of chuckles thrown in.

Malkovich is superb as he was in the first one, Mary Louise Parker makes the most of her role proving yet again what a great talent she has for understated comedy. Willis did his usual acceptable role and Helen Mirren once again proved that she gives every role her full ability.

Anthony Hopkins and Brian Cox were under used in their roles and it's a shame there was no Morgan Freeman this time around, he would have been the icing on the cake.

There are some silly gaffes, like being able to spot the mat one guy falls onto, or the underside of an exploding car which clearly shows it's been stripped and prepped for that stunt... I really would think that in todays digital age, with CGI so easy to come by... these things would be easy to resolve because they're a little embarrassing to the people who made it.

It's entirely down to the cast that takes what would be a mediocre movie, and makes it a good one.

8/10

I regret not watching this earlier. Very entertaining.

Old dogs can still bite.

Yes, Malkovich and Hopkins can play weirdoes, the rest make an expensive Hollywood background and with those special effects can be watched.