Red 2 (Retired Extremely Dangerous)

I had a lovely time today at the movies.  I saw Red2 on its opening day.  Yes, I know there were special previews last night, but the vampires have a contract out for a hit on me, so my night travel is limited...(You do know I'm kidding, right?)

I loved the first movie in this series, Red.  I can easily relate to it.  Older people steadily become invisible in public.  Just ask my dad.  He's been saying that for years.  The first movie came out after I had retired.  I loved the idea of RED - Retired Extremely Dangerous, of the retirees beating the younger hotshots at their own game.  Of course my best friend and I call ourselves REG most of the time - Retired Extremely Gorgeous.  Well, that's enough of my fantasy world - on to the movie.

In Red 2, Frank (Bruce Willis) and Sarah (Mary-Louise Parker) are still together.  But she is becoming more and more restless.  Frank doesn't want to do any more missions.  He wants to keep her safe.  She wants action, adventure.  No small conflict, there...Throughout the film, everybody gives Frank advice on relationships including Marvin, Victoria, Ivan, the Korean hit man, and their target a man known as The Frog.

They run into Marvin (John Malkovich) who is as paranoid as ever, at a Costco.  (What is it with Costco in the movies lately?  Anybody seen The Watch?!) He insists the CIA are coming after them.  And like last time, they are indeed.  The action takes off from there.  They all team up again with Victoria (Helen Mirren) who has been given a contract by her old employer, MI-6, to eliminate Frank.  Into the mix comes her old lover Ivan (Brian Cox).  Catherine Zeta-Jones plays Svetlana, a former lover of Frank's, who is with Russian Intelligence.  Also added to the cast is the "best hit man in the world" a Korean played by Byung-Hun Lee, who has been paid by the CIA to eliminate Frank as well.  Anthony Hopkins does a 180 degree turn as a famous scientist, apparently mad...he seems jolly, forgetful, not at all sinister like his Hannibal Lecter, but very effective nonetheless.

This movie is filled with adventure, major stunts, mayhem, and laughs.  The auditorium of the large theater was half filled this morning.  Most of the audience were older people.  We all laughed uproariously and got the gags.

Filmed in Colorado, New Jersey, London, Paris, and Moscow, it was a fast moving story.  There were shots of modern Moscow whose populace is much more at ease, smiling on the streets, than they were in the Soviet days.  One funny bit that made me howl - our good guys were searching for something hidden there thirty plus years ago.  When they got to the entrance to the underground tunnels they needed, there was a Papa John's Pizza store in the way.  Easy, they just blasted through the men's room wall and found the tunnels.  But the thought of that store in Moscow was a hoot!

Produced by DC Comics, I kid you not, this film is an action picture - high octane and filled with comedy.  I laughed myself silly and was highly entertained.  As in the original, they take another job at the end which ends the film on a note of comic hysteria.  The end credits roll to Perry Como's (Perry Como?!!) version of "Papa Loves Mambo."  It's a fitting end to the film.

It's much more fun than the first one, less serious.  Oh there are things with deadly consequences, but they all keep going, often with hilarious results.

Great job to the cast, the director, the stunt people.  It is a riotous ride, especially considering the ages of the stars.  Some of the stunts are memorable.  I never thought I'd see Helen Mirren ... well, you'll just have to see the film.  There were a long list of stunt doubles in the credits.  I can certainly see why.

In all seriousness, Kids, time passes very quickly.  It will surprise you how one day you turn around and a lot of people at your job are much younger than you.  Your kids are grown with kids of their own.  Intellectually, you know it's been years and years, but you don't think about it on a daily basis.
The world starts passing you by as you take a step back, out of the action.  It feels good to do that, but you know what?  The downside is you know you're becoming irrelevant in the eyes of society.  That does NOT feel so good.  You are ignored more and more by society, because you remind your peers of how old they are, and the younger folks of their fate to be, a dreaded thing in our youth centered culture.

It's a lot of fun to see your peers in a movie full of action and adventure.  For most of us it's pure escape, but what's wrong with that?  It's why we invented pop culture.

Go see this one.  It's a megawatt action flick and a hoot...

Oh, and just because I was glad to see my peers in an action movie, does NOT mean I won't be going to see the new THOR movie coming out soon...Now, he's cute.  Woof!!!