RED 2

Summit Entertainment

Rated PG-13

Running time: 116 Minutes



Click below to watch the Red 2 movie trailer.

In Summit Entertainment's Red 2, in association with DC Entertainment, ex-CIA agent Bruce Willis - who lives a nice domestic life by shopping at Costco - has been brought out of retirement by John Malkovich because a file of an operation that they were involved with back in the 70's in Moscow, Russia during the Cold War has been leaked onto the Internet - and now everyone wants them dead.

In this sequel to Red, based on the limited comic book series created by Warren Ellis and Cully Hamner published by the DC Comics imprint Homage, Willis has settled down to a nice homey life with his girl - bored Mary-Louise Parker. Due to it's comic book origins, there were several art graphics of the characters and scenes in the movie.

While Red was great in introducing the characters, I think I like Red 2 better as a movie more for the story and the characters in Red 2 had more characterization to me than in the original Red.

Helen Mirren is still great as a two-gun toting assassin. Mirren's scenes with contract killer Byung-hun Lee were delightful to see. It is rather touching that Lee's late father Jong Kun Lee is listed in the end credits as one of the main cast in the movie for the use of his pictures as Lee's father, especially when he had dreamed of being an actor himself. I liked the rivalness between Parker and Russian agent Catherine Zeta-Jones, both women of Willis relationships with women. Of course Willis was very uncomfortable when they got together. My favorite scenes were the juxtaposition of the action and Willis's and Parker's domestic scenes, or at least of Willis trying to domesticate Parker's action lust. Neal McDonough, Lt. Hawk in Star Trek: First Contact, was great as the bad guy. It is curious to me in that another Star Trek actor, Karl Urban, was the bad guy in the original Red movie. I hope for that the next Red movie that we will have another Star Trek actor as the bad guy. McDonough was practically psychopathic in his zealousness of getting Willis. David Thewlis initially seemed like a great character, but in actuality he did not have much characterization. Thewlis seemed more like a MacGuffin instead of a major character. Anthony Hopkins was quite appropriate as an eccentric scientist who appears to fit right in with all the other eccentric characters.

All of the characters were rather ambiguous as to which side they were on, which is especially distressing when you consider the stakes of what was happening. So it was rather distressing to me when MI6 and the CIA were after Willis and the other Red agents.

I am looking forward to the next installment of Red.

Click below to watch another movie trailer of Red 2.



Rated PG-13 for violence and language. Running time: 116 Minutes.

Pancho 
All people smile in the same language.

Pancho's Movie Reviews

 

WARM BODIES

Summit Entertainment

Rated PG-13

Running time: 98 minutes



Click below to watch the Warm Bodies trailer.



In Summit Entertainment's Warm Bodies, Nicholas Hoult falls in love with Teresa Palmer - the problem is Hoult is a zombie.

Based on the novel by Isaac Marion, this is a different kind of zombie film with a "dead boy meets girl" plot, which is actually a loose retelling of Romeo and Juliet. I like that Palmer's best friend Analeigh Tipton is a nurse, similar to Juliet's having a nurse, as well as having an "R" and Juliet balcony scene in the movie. Warm Bodies is also told from the zombies point of view with Hoult's voice overs, which I do not think I have seen before. Usually it is zombies just walking around eating people, and there is some of that in the movie - including Palmer's boyfriend Dave Franco. I don't think I have ever seen zombies starting to be cured before and regaining their humanity. These elements make the movie different from what someone may expect from a regular zombie movie. What is curious from a movie making aspect, is that the zombie actors chose not to blink on screen, until they started to become more human.

I think my favorite scene in the movie, aside from Hoult's first meeting with his best friend Rob Corddry as "M", was the Pretty Woman scene with Roy Orbison. Music was a very important part of Hoult being a zombie, and probably added the most humanity to me aside from Hoult's relationship with Palmer. Having Hoult's home being at an airport was an interesting location for zombies that I never considered before.

John Malkovich was great as the para-military Colonel of the surviving humans defending their enclave amongst the zombie outbreak, almost despotic in his zeal of protecting his people and with killing zombies. I liked his video about zombies. The Bony zombies - zombies that are all muscle and bones - were appropriately scary and were definitely the horror part of the movie. I just wish the Bonys were more graphic as well as the child zombies.

I would not be surprised if Warm Bodies becomes a cult classic.

Rated PG-13 for violence and language. Running time: 98 Minutes.

Pancho 
All people smile in the same language.

  Pancho's Movie Reviews

Red

Summit Entertainment
and DC Entertainment

Rated PG-13

Running time: 111 minutes



Click below to watch the Red trailer.


Lonely suburbanite Bruce Willis is wooing his government case worker agent Mary-Louise Parker for his government checks. Soon - a professional hit squad tries to kill Willis in his home. Willis is a former CIA agent who has been declared RED - Retired, Extremely Dangerous. Now Willis must gather his fellow RED agents, Morgan Freeman, John Malkovich, and Helen Mirren to break into CIA Headquarters to find out who is trying to kill all of them, as well as his girlfriend Parker - who reluctantly gets caught up in the middle of all this mess.

Based on the graphic novel Red, DC Entertainment's Red is a much lighter and more comedic version of the graphic novel from what I hear, although I have not read the graphic novel yet. The mature cast seems to be having a lot of fun in the movie. To see Willis as a tough CIA agent developing a relationship with the young Parker and finally letting someone into his secret agent life is rather touching. Having The Queen of drama, Oscar winner Helen Mirren - wearing an evening gown and firing a machine gun - in an action film was one of the reasons why I wanted to see this movie in the first place and Mirren does not disappoint. As Mirren tells Parker, "I kill people, dear." Even if Mirren does kill people, Mirren is still very much a lady. Malkovich is over the top playing an agent who was given LSD for 11 years. Freeman is not given as much to do in the movie, but he does have his moments.

Rated PG-13 for violence. Running time 111 minutes.

Pancho
All people smile in the same language.