RED2 begins a few months after RED (2010) left off. It’s the continuing saga of senior citizen spies. Mostly retired (the title stands for Retired Extremely Dangerous), they just want to get by playing bingo, eating out a lot and going to bed early. Unfortunately their checkered and violent pasts keep pulling them back into the James Bond game.
The main star is 58-year-old Bruce Willis. He shops at Costco and lives with his lovely younger wife, 49-year-old Mary-Louise Parker. BW’s best friend is, again, played by, 59-year-old John Malkovich. Sixty-eight-year-old Helen Mirren is the British female agent hired to assassinate her pal BW. Also out to get him is Kung Fu expert, 43-year-old Byung-hung Lee. You want to keep clear of this guy. Also back, is 67-year-old Brian Cox as a Russian cohort. Another Russian spyette added to the cast is, 44-year-old Catherine Zeta-Jones. Oscar-winning 75-year-old Sir Anthony Hopkins shows up in an important role. (AH won his Oscar for his role as Hannibal Lecter. Brian Cox also played Hannibal Lecter in the evil characters first screen appearance. So you get two Hannibals for one price.)
The story is a lightning-paced James Bond extravaganza that travels from Costco to Paris, Moscow, and London. Canadian locations fill in whenever possible. Big-time action sequences, comedy, and all kinds of twists and turns keep everything in motion from end to end. MLP was also in R.I.P.D., which opened the same day as RED2. Unlike the two Hannibal Lecters, you will have to pay separate admissions to see MLP twice.
The first RED also featured a small part featuring 93-year-old Ernest Borgnine who passed away in 2012 at the age of 95. Also missing from RED2 from the RED1 cast are, now 76-year-old Morgan Freeman and, 65-year-old Richard Dreyfuss.
RED2 is one of the best films of the year so far. If they keep cranking out films this good, I, 66-year-old Karl Scott will be there. You, fill-in-age-here, should be too.
Rated 3.3 out of 4.0 as of now.