RED 2

I loved the first RED. I defend it as what The Expendables wanted to be - a star studded cast of hilariously older men and women fighting stereotypical bad guys. What could possibly go wrong with Bruce Willis, John Malkovich, Morgan Freeman, and Helen Mirren fighting Karl Urban? I loved every second of it.

When RED 2 was slated, for me, there was only one thing it needed to make it work - more of the same. Sure, a new interesting story would be nice. But all I wanted was bombastic silly action in the same realm of reality as the first. That's to say, actions had equal consequences. Also, John Malkovich. It had to have PLENTY of John Malkovich.

Well, the film certainly had lots of Malkovich. And plenty of Willis and Mirren as well. Mary Louise Parkers character is back again too, just as hopelessly naive but easily likable as before. The explosions are there, the fun antagonist is there, it all checks out. Some people were saying that the film sacrificed its sense of humor for the bombastic explosions. I respectfully disagree. Sure, there were lots of explosions, maybe more than the first, but at no point did I feel let down by a lack of humor. I was laughing just as much as the first. Maybe a little less hard, but as much.

Effects in the film looked as good as the first too. In fact, the few parts of the first that looked hilariously  fake were redeemed with great explosions, awesome gun shootouts, and super fun moments of bad-ass.  Additionally, the style of the film didn't change - lots of nice long shots to show off the great hand to hand combat, very little shaky cam that again let us watch the great motions on screen. It looked great, it moved great.

And then the ending.

Listen, I'm not one to normally discredit a film by the ending. But this rivaled The Dark Knight Rises for scientific stupidity. Again, I won't say anything to avoid spoilers. But any joy that I had for the scenes I watched was sucked away at my frustration for the biggest middle finger wrap up I could imagine. Dear god, the ending was awful. And I'm mad. That being said, I'm fair. But the rank does reflect how the ending seriously took away my decision to buy the bluray when it comes out.

Rank - 2.5/5