Retired C.I.A. agent Frank Moses reunites his unlikely team of elite operatives for a global quest to track down a missing portable nuclear device.
The result plays like the sixth installment in a flogged-to-death franchise rather than an eager and energetic second.
By dint of its expensive globetrotting production and familiar stars, Red 2 is a passable entertainment, but its lack of energy or direction seems to spell the death-knell for its oldies franchise.
Like the first one, it's played for laughs in-between bouts of mayhem; most of the gags are off-target, though Mirren's Nancy Mitfordesque assassin gets a pretty good kill ratio.
Despite a script peppered with bullet holes, the cast seem to be having pulpy fun, and if you can get past Red’s exuberant attitude to violent death, so might you.
I'm all for actors still cutting it in middle age, but the material serving them is just arthritic.
A fun, frothy return for Frank and his creaky commandos.
RSS feed of Cinema reviews