RED 2

year: 2013 cast: Bruce Willis, John Malkovich, Helen Mirren, Anthony Hopkins, Brian Cox rating: ***

If someone had the task of counting all the bullets fired in RED 2, the location-hopping follow-up to the DC COMICS graphic novel turned veteran actor ensemble, they’d have an easier time figuring how many grains of sand make up the Sahara Desert. Okay, that’s an exaggeration… And exaggeration is exactly what makes this movie so fun to watch.

Bruce Willis, as retired agent Frank Moses, is the man everything centers around. His very normal small town girl Sarah, played by Mary-Louise Parker, is along for the ride and, much like the original, can’t believe she’s part of the bloodshed. Thankfully this time she isn't so befuddled, and really wants to learn how to, along with John Malkovich’s crazy Marvin and Helen Mirren’s gun-toting Victoria, take down the bad guys and find a missing nuclear reactor. So once again we’re thrust back into a modern day Cold War: The Russians are present but not as villains – Catherine-Zeta Jones plays Frank’s former lover, a sexy Soviet agent bringing jealousy out of Sarah’s character, who uses her sexuality to help the group weave in and out of painted corners.

The entire film goes from one gun-blasting situation to the next, each with a new European location and obstacles around every turn. Anthony Hopkins plays a highly regarded bomb expert who flipped his lid after spending thirty years in prison; he makes an awful secondary comic relief but there's more here than meets the eye. And in the token youth department Byung-hun Lee as Han, out to kill Frank at all costs, provides a few good karate kicks along the way. And with an overkill of perpetual violence, diminishing what could have been more creative espionage, this is all about the characters. Despite the fact that Malkovich isn't as crazy or humorous, he’s not trying so hard to be the quirky "Murdoch" (A-TEAM) and plays a relatively mellow second fiddle to Willis, who, at this point, can sleepwalk though action sequences and it wouldn’t make any difference… He and his pals are having a blast despite the bombarding cliches.