Red 2 (2013)

A retired CIA operative (Bruce Willis) is settled into domesticity with his girlfriend (Mary Louise Parker) when the death of a friend and former fellow agent (John Malkovich) pushes him back into the thick of things. Their names, it seems, have been leaked on the internet regarding an old covert operation known as Nightshade which was about smuggling nuclear weapons into the Soviet Union. The follow up to the surprise 2010 hit RED (based on a graphic novel), I found the sequel a notch or two above the original. It's nothing more than guns and more guns, big explosions, karate fights, car chases, crosses and doubles crosses tied together with some amusing patter. Who cares if the tossed together plot seems too far fetched, the movie is energetic and eager to please and I had a good time at it. Returning from the original are Brian Cox and Helen Mirren, who takes the movie and tucks it in her little pocket and walks away with it. Whether drolly pouring acid over bodies in bathtubs, strapped into a strait jacket in a loony bin screaming "I'm the Queen of England!" or shooting off two pistols at once during a car chase, she's a marvel to behold! Directed by Dean Parisot (GALAXY QUEST). With Catherine Zeta Jones as a Soviet agent, Anthony Hopkins as a nuclear scientist, Byung-hun Lee, David Thewlis and Neal McDonough.