RED 2 (Retired, Extremely Dangerous) July 19, 2013

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Source: RED 2 Facebook 

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#RED2 #ByunghunLee

Credit: anuskacarter

 

 

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Throwback Thursday

#RED2 #HelenMirren #ByunghunLee

Clip: strugglewiththedream

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August 30, 2017

Red 2 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray Review

Brad Sturdivant Flix 66

Director: Dean Parisot

Starring: Bruce Willis, John Malkovich, Mary-Louise Parker

Bruce Willis has always been a fan of doing sequels to movies that don’t really need them (I’m looking at you, THE WHOLE TEN YARDS), so when one of his rare theatrical movies makes enough money to merit a sequel, I’m sure Willis was really excited.  The original didn’t crack $100 million domestically and the sequel made about half of the original, so any hopes for a franchise were squashed pretty quickly.  That said, the RED franchise is efficient at what it does, which is basically sticking older, recognizable faces in action sequences that no one involved is taking too seriously.  RED 2 follows the same general outline of the original and should please anyone that was pleasantly surprised by the first film.

In RED 2, we pick up with Sarah (Parker) and Frank (Willis) as they’re settling in to a normal life.  That life gets turned upside down when Marvin (Malkovich) appears out of nowhere to worn Frank that someone has leaked details about a mission they did back in the cold war and now a lot of bad guys want them dead.  This sets off an international cat and mouse game where the gang has to evade a slew of bad guys, including Han (Byung-hun Lee) and the government agent Jack (Neal McDonough).

At its core, RED 2 knows exactly what it is and it embraces that.  It’s a fun, lighthearted movie that will always take the easy joke while juggling average action sequences.  It relies heavily on Bruce Willis to be charming and cool and although he was much better at that 20 years ago, he can still muster up enough charisma to keep a movie afloat.  It doesn’t hurt that he’s surrounded by some of the best (and most experienced) supporting actors working today in John Malkovich, Morgan Freeman and of course the incomparable Helen Mirren.  Everyone involved seems to know the kind of movie they’re doing, but they eat up the screen and seem to have fun doing it.

I’m still not sure how RED 2 ever got the greenlight, but it’s a worthy sequel to a surprise hit.  Anyone that enjoyed the first one will probably find enough here to keep themselves entertained, even though Willis seems to be more in his B-movie mode than his previous A-list glory mode.

4K ULTRA HD BLU-RAY REVIEW

Video:  Everything I said for the 4K release of RED holds true with RED 2.  The Dolby Vision is going to wow a lot of customers and between that and the added 4K detail, this is a significant improvement over the Blu-ray.  I was worried some of the explosions and action sequences would lose their luster on 4K, but that wasn’t the case at all.  This is a nice looking 4K and fans of the series should be pleased with the attention Lionsgate has given their franchise.

Audio: Much like RED, the Dolby Atmos track sounds wonderful, making a nice upgrade over the Blu-ray’s DTS track.

This title was reviewed using a Samsung UBD-K8500 with a Sony XBR75X850C TV.

The 4K UHD does not contain any exclusive features, but it does include a Blu-ray of the film and you can read our review by clicking RED 2 Blu-ray Review.