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

 

MONSTERS UNIVERSITY

Walt Disney Pictures

Rated G

Running time: 104 Minutes



Click below to watch the movie trailer of Monsters University.



In Walt Disney Pictures Monsters University, before Mike - Billy Crystal - and Sulley - John Goodman - were Incorporated scarers, they had to go to school.

This film is the first prequel for Pixar. In this prequel to Monsters Inc. - a G Rated version of Revenge of the Nerds - before they were famous, Mike/Crystal and Sulley/Goodman are rival scare major students competing to be the best scarer during the Scare Games.

Several actors return to reprise their characters including Steve Buscemi, Bob Peterson, and John Ratzenberger.

I thought it was quite appropriate that the scariest monster to me in this academic setting was the Dean of the school, Helen Mirren. I thought the movie was cute - although I liked Monsters Inc. better, probably because of the relationship that Mike/Crystal and Sulley/Goodman were having with the human child Boo - Mary Gibbs - in the first movie. Mike/Crystal and Sulley's/Goodman's relationships with Oozma Kappa did not have the same emotional relationship to me, even with the big Sulley/Goodman going up against Oozma Kappa. Although I did like little Mike's/Crystal's tutoring of Oozma Kappa.

I was with my nieces, so we left when the credits started. As a result, I missed the fact that there is a scene during the end credits.

Monsters University also had the premier of the Pixar short film The Blue Umbrella which I thought was a really cute relationship film.

Click below to watch another movie trailer of Monsters University.



Rated G with mild violence. Running time: 104 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.