Big guns, ex-police officers, a Mad Scientist’s invention, beautiful women, a hot Korean dude and humour and you know its going to be a good movie.

That was my first impression on this movie.
But what left me a deeper first impression was at the 14 seconds of the trailer:

Setting at Costco, an old friend Marvin said this to Bruce Willis:
“Frank! I need you. You haven’t killed anybody in months!”

I know I’ve got to watch this movie. So, thanks to OMY.sg, and Shaw Theatres, I was treated to lots of laughter at the preview of the RED 2 movie at Shaw Lido Theatres.

Movie Preview with OMY Blog Club

The movie surrounds a mad scientist’s plot on luring these ex-CIA officers out of their “retirement” by making them on the No.1 wanted list on Interpol, each sending their best agents to kill the duo; which also happens to be their best friends.

The movie lived up to its comic book origins, which RED and RED2 movie is based on; with treatments of the comic being one of the essence of the movie. It does feel like watching a movie and flipping a comic book at the same time when the visual treatment appears.
These comic visuals does allow the audiences to take a short breather in between this extremely fast-paced movie.

I love reading adventure, action, with forces/ops type of book, all the action in this movie that bring alive imagination is what books and comics bring.

Helen Mirren Car Scene

The car chase scenes were one of the many stunt-scenes I enjoyed the most.
The precision of each turn and slide is amazing.
Although there are some which are obviously done with the help of computer graphics, but hey! It’s a comic book-movie, CG is essential.

Of the many fight scenes, I like Lee Byung-Hun’s fight scene in the supermarket. Although I am unsure who the stunt choreographer is, however, that scene brought out the essence of the Asian style movie martial arts, which I really like compared to many other American style. Just comparing the first scene of Bruce Willis and Byung-Hun’s fight scene and you may get what I meant.

The humour in this movie is impeccable.
While many  may disagree with me, I have to say, I do like black humour.
Helen Mirren’s character is just full of it!
A mature, sassy agent that you never want to mess with; and while pouring acid into the bath to dissolve her victim, she still could warn Frank (played by Willis) about his tailing killers and calmly tells him to “enjoy life while you still can”.

The best never rest

Another example of humour played out were the cars used in a car-chase scene with Catherine Zeta-Jones: A black Porsche Carrera vs. a vintage volkswagen beetle chasing after a sports bike.

While the plot central character seems to be Dr. Bailey (played by Anthony Hopkins), I thought another central character of the movie was Sarah, Frank’s wife.
A simple, naive girl, who is a total noob (newbie) in the business of killing and running ops, her reactions and behaviours often gets the team in trouble. However, throughout the show, Marvin (played by John Malkovich) has been teaching her the essentials for situations and Frank finally gave in and gave her a role to play.

While I have my LIKES, I also have my dislikes.
Unless you have watched RED, you will have to deal with the little information on each individual character and the story behind them; as the movie only describe them with a one-liner script.

The movie story is very simple and very predictable.
Partly maybe due to the trailer where most of the interesting parts were highlighted in that 2:27 minute clip; I also have to highlight that there were a number of clichés. The movie closes pretty abruptly and it just gave me a impression of the closing of a drama serial show.

If you are a fan of adventure, force ops books, many part of the plot is very common and in fact to a point of being cliché. It is always expected where the hook and lure will come in and who will say it.

Overall, the movie is still packed with badass attitudes, full of individualistic characters yet collective for the good, action -packed scenes that provides the hypes and funny scenes that keeps the laughter coming.
And, maybe throwing in one or two face-palm moments to keep you entertained to the edge of your seat.

Oh and don’t forget, you get excellent music scored by Alan Slivestri.

My Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
Comment: Fast-paced action comedy, worth to watch.

Disclaimer: Movie compliments of Cathay Cinemas and OMY.SG. No monetary compensation was received. Opinions stated are genuine and honest. Also note that all sources, information, content, links are accurate at the time of posting.