2010’s “Red,” based on the same-named DC Comics series by Warren Ellis and Cully Hamner, was about “retired, extremely dangerous” government agents who got pulled back into the game when someone tried to frame them for helping to murder an entire village some decades ago. They evaded assassination attempts, snipers, and secret agents, and realized that sitting around just wasn’t going to cut it for them anymore—and so “Red 2” (screenwriters Jon and Erich Hoeber are relying less so on the comics this time around) picks up in that vein, with our heroes back to being heroes.
Well, kind of. Frank (Willis, of “G.I. Joe: Retaliation” and “A Good Day to Die Hard”) is trying to live a normal life, but girlfriend Sarah (Mary-Louise Parker), whom he saved in the first film, isn’t that excited about his hording of items from big-box stores and his satisfaction just sitting around all day, not getting shot at. But Sarah’s frustration with their suburban inertia is juxtaposed with the U.S. government’s suspicion that Frank has some kind of nuclear device, and after he’s been questioned and implicated with the theft of the weapon years ago, Frank realizes the easy life he wanted isn’t that easy after all. Enter Frank’s friend Marvin (John Malkovich, of “Warm Bodies” and “Transformers: Dark of the Moon”), who was supposed to be dead but is actually on the run, too. If they’re being set up, then at least they can escape danger together, right?
However, Sarah wants to come along. And Frank and Marvin are being pursued by an old friend and ally, Victoria (Helen Mirren, of “Monsters University” and “Hitchcock”), who has been hired to kill them, and a new enemy, Han Jo-Bae (Lee Byung-hun, of “G.I. Joe: Retaliation”), who is also on their tail. Plus, the person they’re trying to find who may know something about the weapon, scientist Edward Bradley (Anthony Hopkins, of “Hitchcock” and “Thor”), just might be crazy. Oh, and finally, Frank’s old squeeze (Catherine Zeta-Jones, of “Playing for Keeps” and “Rock of Ages”) is also a Russian spy looking for the device, and she’s not above seducing Frank back, regardless of Sarah’s presence. What’s the civilian doing running around with much older spies, anyway? That just seems dangerous.
And the emphasis here is, of course, “running around,” as the film jumps from location to location, from the United Kingdom to France and Russia, and adds characters only to have them spit out a few lines or two (David Thewlis, Professor Lupin from the “Harry Potter” franchise, is particularly underused), and incorporates plot twists at the drop of a hat. But it all seems quite slapdash and without a clear conclusion, which you can tell from how Mirren’s character disappears for a major chunk of the film, or how there is really only one great major fighting sequence (it takes place in a convenience store, and it demonstrates why Lee is a major star in Asia), even though this is supposed to be an action movie. Overall, there’s no real tension; the characters never seem that concerned for their lives, and there’s no hint of genuine danger or threat. It’s not only like the actors are going through the motions, but the narrative is, too.
The pieces just don’t quite fit, and the weird, off-kilter energy of the first film is replaced here by Willis only offering up sarcastic facial expressions and Malkovich delivering zany asides and Louise-Parker’s Sarah being horrendously inept in the field when she tries to play spy. This feels like mimicry of the first “Red,” not a continuation of the story. There are some amusing touches that seem left over from the first film (like Victoria using acid to dissolve a corpse while breezily chatting on the phone at the same time, or Brian Cox’s Ivan cooing slightly drunken, romantic words to her even though they are competitors), but overall, it’s just another underdeveloped action movie reaching back to Cold War clichés. There’s nothing new or different enough in “Red 2” to warrant your interest.
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