Red 2, the closet
comic book film of the summer, has been marketing itself as the antidote to the
monster/superhero bombast of the summer season, and while that’s certainly true
it might have been wiser to play up the film’s strengths – its exuberant sense
of fun executed by professionals who aren’t afraid to take themselves a little
less than seriously.
Enjoying retirement to the dismay of his girlfriend Sarah
(Mary-Louise Parker), former special agent Frank Moses (Bruce Willis) is pulled
back into the life by his old partner, the mentally dispossessed Marvin Boggs
(John Malkovich). While another old
friend, Victoria Winters (Helen Mirren), takes a contract on their lives for
MI6, these Retired/Extremely Dangerous agents scramble to find a nuclear device
mislaid during the Cold War before engaging Edward Bailey (Anthony Hopkins),
the criminally insane genius who built the bomb.
Let’s get the obligatory stuff out of the way. Red 2
bears none of the gravitas of Skyfall
and probably won’t be making any best-of lists come December (although it’s #1
on my list of “Top 10 Movies of 2013 Where Helen Mirren Blows Stuff Up”). And while the concept demands aging actors,
there are moments when an abler, more spry spy might have shaved about fifteen
minutes off the plot; there are moments in Red
2 where Willis seems tired and not, I suspect, because his character needs
a breather. (I hesitate to say “phoning
it in,” although it’s clear he’s not having as much fun as everyone else at all
times.)
But even though the director’s seat has a new occupant this
time (Dean Parisot replacing Robert Schwentke), screenwriters Jon & Erich
Hoeber return to make sure that the Red
franchise keeps its identity secure.
This is a film that knows itself well and in the end does right by
itself. The Hoebers don’t lose sight of
what made the first film work – its melding of no-frills action and an
infectious sense of fun. But a movie
premised just on being fun doesn’t quite cut it. Fortunately, Red 2 is also deft at including the other elements – plot,
character, acting – that a film needs to “work.”
The plot is, admittedly, a little thin – we’ve seen “ticking
time bomb” plots before – but it succeeds at giving events a sense of
significance rather than just a skeleton on which to graft special effects
sequences. That is, we care about the
stakes, and the characters are compelling enough to bring it to life; we want
to see them defuse the bomb not because they have to but because the narrative
structure imbues importance on the issue.
Much of that work of significance comes from the acting
cast, who are as resplendently entertaining as they were in the first
outing. Willis, Malkovich, and Mirren
continue to do well in their roles (the latter practically demanding a spin-off
with a near-cameo Brian Cox, whose infatuation with her never gets old), their
taut chemistry losing none of its fizzle in the interim, but it’s Parker who’s
the surprise hit, amping up her damsel-in-distress with a strong shot of thrill-seeking. Parker’s everything you want in an unlikely
action heroine – strong, sexy, hilarious, and just the right amount of
clumsy-yet-capable.
New face Catherine Zeta-Jones is somewhat less inspiring as
a Russian femme fatale, though her scenes with Willis allow the latter to play
a stellar moonstruck. The other big
additions, however, are much more pleasant.
Byung Hun Lee is a treat as an assassin with a revenge plot for Frank
Moses, and his fight scenes get the blood pumping where the older stars can’t. But by far and to no one’s surprise, the best
addition to the cast is Sir Anthony Hopkins as the insanity-addled scientist,
who’s gone mental after years of solitary confinement. If Red
2 is understood as a space where scenery chewing isn’t just permissible,
it’s encouraged (cf. Malkovich), Hopkins goes to the head of the buffet line
for an all-you-can-eat performance, greeting invisible cows while distractedly
fidgeting with nerve gas. It’s the kind
of role that exudes entertainment, with Hopkins’s gleeful mania suggesting not
just the depths of his character’s insanity but also the sheer enjoyment factor
that must come from playing such a part.
At the end of the day, Red
2 doesn’t break much new ground, nor does it distinguish itself as
mind-numbingly brilliant. But what it
does, it does quite well – entertain, distract, and divert for two hours with a
serviceable plot, a solid ensemble cast, and a breathless sense of fun. Count me in for Red 3 (especially if you get someone like Michael Caine in there)!
Red 2 is rated
PG-13 for “pervasive action and violence including frenetic gunplay, and for
some language and drug material.” Yeah,
that’s a weirdly specific rating... certainly lots of guns get fired and plenty
of stuff blows up. The profanity is
pretty tame, and Marvin’s history with LSD is cited a few times.
Check back with us on Wednesday for another action film, Pacific Rim!
Monday, July 22, 2013
Red 2 (2013)
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