RED2: an outrageous romp with a class cast

First in the credits, of course, is Bruce Willis. It seems the man we learned to know and love as a suave sleuth in Moonlighting is quite the ruthless action figure these days. The RED movies, however, play to his mushy  side; namely, quirky Mary-Louise Parker.

Then there’s weird John Malkovich, strangely endearing and always in the right place in the nick of time. And I must mention the addition of the urbane Anthony Hopkins to this episode, whose considerable skills were needed for his multi-layered character.

But riding above them all is the inimitable Helen Mirren, the very definition of refined English grace.  Who else can both hoist an AK-47 and arrange flowers with such unflappable elegance?  I would kill to be like her.

I suppose there was a plot somewhere in between the innumerable murders and horrific, cataclysmic, even world-ending explosions.  Near as I could figure, every government on earth was hiring the best assassins available to take out their retired operatives, that is, REDs: (Retired, Extremely Dangerous) including pitting the REDs against each other.  But – assassins basically belonging to the same fraternity, after all – end up uniting against Anthony Hopkins who buried some insidious WMD under the Kremlin a generation ago.

How does it all end? Up in the air, actually – on someone’s plane with a bunch of international cutthroats giving love advice to Bruce Willis.

I can hardly wait for RED3.