RED 2

ACTION/ADVENTURE, COMEDY

The Best Never Rest

8.0 out of 10 | DVD or RENTAL

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Rated: PG-13 Pervasive action and violence including frenetic gunplay, and for some language and drug material
Release Date: July 19, 2013
Runtime: 1 hour 56 minutes

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Director: Dean Parisot
Writers: Jon Hoeber, Erich Hoeber, based on characters created by Warren Ellis and Cully Hamner
Cast: Bruce Willis, John Malkovich, Mary-Louise Parker, Helen Mirren, Anthony Hopkins, Byung-hun Lee, Catherine Zeta-Jones, Neal McDonough, David Thewlis, Brian Cox

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SYNOPSIS:  Retired black-ops CIA agent Frank Moses reunites his unlikely team of elite operatives for a global quest to track down a missing portable nuclear device.

REVIEW: Galaxy Quest and Fun with Dick and Jane director Dean Parisot tries to rein in Bruce Willis as he returns as Frank, a retired CIA agent designated as RED (Retired, Extremely Dangerous). Based on a script by returning scribes Erich and Jon Hoeber, from the comic characters created by Warren Ellis and Cully Hamner, Frank and his elite retirees find themselves in even deeper trouble against the government they served and a new international threat.

Frank (Bruce Willis, A Good Day to Die Hard) returns as an ex-CIA Cold War operative living in quiet retirement with his girlfriend Sarah (Mary-Louise Parker, Weeds), still labeled as a RED (Retired, Extremely Dangerous). When his long time agent buddy Marvin (John Malkovich, Warm Bodies) is killed, Frank and Sarah go to ground and Frank is arrested and interrogated by a spook specialist Jack Horton (Neal McDonough, Captain America: The First Avenger) who asks him what he knows about Project Nightshade. Knowing nothing about the project, Frank escapes to discover and uncover what he can find out about the highly classified project. He is helped by a former soviet femme fatale Katja (Catherine Zeta-Jones, Rock of Ages), a crack shot and former MI6 agent Victoria (Helen Mirren, Hitchcock) while being pursued by contract killer Han Cho Bai (Byung-hun Lee, G.I. Joe: Retaliation) who Frank shares a betraying past.

A sequel to the graphic novel turned movie RED, RED 2 is a action-packed, silly suspense dramedy that does not take itself too seriously. Tongue and cheek, Frank and his ex-agents deal with governments ready to put them out to pasture - permanently - a Cold War relic that could mean the death of millions, and a conspiracy that reaches far beyond the scope of any of their individual experiences and abilities. High on snark, rich with gunfire and close combat, and thundering with explosions, RED 2 is the perfect follow-up to the original and complement to the graphic novel series.

Bruce Willis as Frank finds himself struggling against years of operative training in order to settle down with his girlfriend Sarah. The problem is that his girlfriend has the adrenaline bug and just wants to go out on grand adventures. John Malkovich is at his strange and paranoid best as Marvin, but somehow the voice of reason when it comes to Frank's romantic life. Helen Mirren's Victoria is as stunning as she is dangerous, coupled with the exotic beauty and grace of Catherine Zeta Jones Katja. A couple other familiar faces show up in the sequel, as well as new threats.

RED 2 does not skip out on the high explosives, car chases, gun fights, and close quarters fighting. It also amps up the international espionage and intrigue by forcing Frank and his crew to save themselves by figuring out the Cold War era Project Nightshade to save themselves. Sprinting around the world, Frank and his gang encounter danger and threats from all sides.

If possible, RED 2 is somehow more grounded and believable then its original film counterpart. Remember when Malkovich's Marvin shot a handgun at a rocket propelled grenade? None of that is in this sequel, although there is still plenty of high intensity action for the adrenaline junkie fans of cinema. There still some unbelievable action sequences and you root for the good guys every time.

RED 2 is a grand old time at the movies, especially if you like Bruce Willis' tough guy roles and sheer firepower. Sedate moments throughout balance the raw and plentiful action, keeping this film a perfect trajectory for success.

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The Campaign

Political Asylum

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Rated: R  Brief nudity, language and crude sexual content.
Release Date: August 10, 2012
Runtime:  1 hour 25 minutes

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Director: Jay Roach
Writers: Chris Hemchy, Shawn Harwell
Cast:  Will Ferrell, Zach Galifianakis, Jason Sudeikis, Sarah Baker, Dylan McDermott, Katherine LaNasa, Brian Cox, John Lithgow, Dan Aykroyd

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SYNOPSIS: In order to gain political clout in their North Carolina district, two CEOs try to oust the long-standing unopposed congressman Cam Brady by backing naive local Tourism Center director Marty Huggins on the ballet.

REVIEW: Austin Powers, Meet the Parents, and Dinner for Schmucks director Jay Roach returns for another batch of comedy - this time of the political nature. Writer Chris Henchy, a man familiar with Will Ferrell films since he wrote Land of the Lost and The Other Guys, joins forces with Eastbound and Down scribe Shawn Harwell to take advantage of Ferrell's vast experience as a both a political candidate and the President of the United States. Of course, George Bush didn't have to deal with the likes of Zach Galifianakis.

North Carolina District 11 Congressman Cam Brady (Will Ferrell, Casa de mi Padre) has enjoyed five consectutive terms in Washington, D.C.. serving his home town. When his numbers drop due to a publicized martial infidelity, two corporate CEOs Glen (John Lithgow, The Rise of the Planet of the Apes) and Wade Motch (Dan Ackroyd, Ghostbusters) lose faith that Brady will be able to support their greedy plans to build factories to be filled with cheap foreign labor and decide to pull their support from Brady in favor of naive local Tourist Center director Marty Huggins (Zach Galifianakis, The Hangover II). Desperate to change his howntown for the better and make his father Raymond Mitch (The Rise of the Planet of the Apes) proud, Marty accepts and soon learns that politics is not for the timid.

Rebounding from his silly and awkward Casa de mi Padre, Will Ferrell tackles a topic that he is more familiar with. Spending years honing his impression of George Bush during his stint on Saturday Night Live which turned into a limited run one-man Broadway show, Ferrell knows the ups and downs of political live from the perspective of a supposed dim-witted president. Taking on the mantle of congressman Cam Brady, Ferrell takes all his political clout and adds a dash of Talladega Nights Ricky Bobby and creates a classic V8 political machine that used to run on all cylinders but now seems to be misfiring in the wake of his own shaken belief of infallibility and sudden corporate backed competition in the pudgy form of Marty Huggins. Galifaniakis’ Huggins character is a strange, timid effeminate, high-pitched, lisp voiced man who loves his wife, boys, two pugs, and the town he grew up in. As the local Tourist Center director, Marty takes pride in the work he does and the happiness he tries to spread to other residents. The only thing he does lack is the respect from his father Mitch that, coupled with his love for the prosperity of his North Carolina district, prompts him to accept the Motch’s respect for Marty to become Brady’s competition.

The Campaign is all about… the campaign. Cam Brady, unaccustomed to having any opposition, relies on his campaign manager Mitch (Jason Sudeikis, Horrible Bosses) to turns his political sexual misdeeds into something positive. Sudeikis adds a cool southern drawl to a more understated performance to make his character different from past films efforts. On the other side of the ticket, the Motch brothers employ the dark suited professional spin-doctoring campaign manager Tim Wattley (Dylan McDermott, American Horror Story) to turn Marty from the quiet Travelocity gnome of a man into a fierce political animal. McDermott is sultry cool, of course, as the high-powered, high-paid campaign manager who is more black-clad assassin than political maven. Rounding out the main cast are the wives Mitzi Huggins (Sarah Baker, Modern Family) and Rose Brady (Katherine LaNasa, Valentine's Day), one a devoted partner to a wonderful man, and the other a trophy wife more concerned about image and power than marriage.

The comedy bits, excluding but not limited to the baby-punching incident at the candidates’ first debate, are silly and sometimes shocking, always able to elicit a laugh or a smile. Marty’s mannerisms, similar to his character in Due Date, are enough to make you both sympathize and pity him. The lengths that the opponents and their campaign camps go to in order to out-do the other are hilarious. A simple wardrobe malfunction even manages to go seemingly unnoticed by the candidates while glaringly obvious to the rest of the cast and audience.

The comedy works on a lot of levels. The political angle is both funny and poignant to the recent past and current climate. The problem comes in with the rest of the story. Focusing on eight weeks on the campaign trail brings with it the highs of humors and the lows of plodding political storyline. Of course, this is not an episode of The West Wing nor does it claim to be, but maybe the context of the story does not is not as stimulating as the worlds of Ron Burgundy or Ricky Bobby.

Punching babies aside, The Campaign works on the merits of its cast and the strengths of its one-two punch of political comedy and parody. The story is okay but you will laugh quite a bit, no matter your political party preferences.

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WORTH: Rental

Rise of the Planet of the Apes

Chest Pounding Good Time

Director: Rupert Wyatt

Writers: Pierre Boulle, Rick Jaffa, Amanda Silver

Cast: James Franco, Freida Pinto, John Lithgow, Brian Cox, Tom Felton, Andy Serkis

SYNOPSIS: After creating a pharmaceutical cure for Alzheimer's, the company that Will Rodman works for launches into clinical animal trials. As the trials expand the intelligence of test subject Caeser, the simian finds itself in a position to wrestle control away from the humans who have mistreated him.

REVIEW: We have seen its battles and conquests. We have seen beneath it and have helped to escape from it. Between 1968 and 1973, 20th Century Fox had released five Planet of the Apes films based on the French novel La Planete des singes by Pierre Boulle. Over the years, 20th Century Fox has returned to the Planet of the Apes with television series and comic book stories. The franchise was rebooted, reinterpreted and re-imagined by Tim Burton with Mark Wahlberg and Tim Roth in the lead roles in 2001 with a successful box office, but mixed critical and fan opinion.

Now, 20th Century Fox is reimagining the franchise again with an origin story set in modern day San Francisco, where Will Rodman (James Franco) experiments with generic engineering for a cure for Alzheimer's disease. Along the way, his 'cure' leads to the development of superior intelligence in the test subject simian in the animal trials. Can Rise of the Planet of the Apes reignite one of the first fan favorite film franchise? A series of films with a legacy on par with the frenzy of today's Harry Potter series, Rise of the Planet of the Apes may be the studio's last attempt to reboot and reclaim its former glory.

James Franco stars as William Rodman, a Berkley scientist working at the pharmaceutical corporation Gen Sys in pursuit of a cure for Alzheimer's that afflict his father Charles (John Lithgow). When ALZ 112 shows repaired cognitive functions in chimpanzee #9, Rodman pushes the board to vote in favor of human trials. When #9, nicknamed Bright Eyes, seems to go berserk on the day of the presentation, the entire project is shut down and all of the test subjects euthanized. But Bright Eye's outburst was due to her protecting an infant no one was aware of. Rodman takes the baby chimp home and raises it as his own, soon realizing that the cognitive benefits from the 112 serum had been passed directly to the baby, named Caeser by William's father. And so begins a brand new modern interpretation of an enduring film franchise.

Built on a solid script from RIck Jaffa and Amanda Silver, based on the films and and based on the original story from Pierre Boulle, Rise of the Planet of the Apes unfolds an origin tale much more believable - if you suspend your disbelief - than the sequels did in the original 1970s versions. Based on man's genetic chemical experimentation to repair the human brain, the obvious choice for animal testing would put chimpanzees and other simians in the line of fire. Never satisfied with the original time-traveling Caeser baby throwback where chimpanzees replaced the exist dogs and cats as domestic pets and domestic servants before they eventually rebelled against their human masters, Rise of the Planet of the Apes uses modern thinking (no pun intended) to rationalize how an evolved species of animal would all of a sudden push into a new evolutionary cycle on its way to become the dominant species on the planet.

The effects are slick, the CGI a little ragged to the trained eye at the beginning but evolving into developed detailed characters as Caeser grows up. The intelligent look in Caeser's eyes as his capacity broadened pierces right through you. Without uttering a word, Caeser (powered and captured by Andy Serkis of the Lord of the Rings trilogy) conveys all the pain and knowing that the drugs endow in him. As the story rises up into a climatic confrontation on the Golden Gate Bridge, all the dazzle of what CGI can do comes to light as Caesar and his small army of enlightened apes square off against CHiPs, swat, local law enforcement and the Gen Sys executive Steven Jacobs (David Oyelowo). The only other issue I had was that by the climax of the film, there seems to be an abundance of army apes that were not accounted for earlier in the story.

Brian Cox is notable as the less than savory primate sanctuary administrator John Landon, letting his son Dodge (played beautifully by Tom Felton) run the place like his own personal testing lab for abusing the animals and treating them worse than inmates. John Lithgow as Charles Rodman shows his acting range as William's father as his Alzheimer's rages and recedes with the introduction of the drugs William gives him. Freida Pinto is also on board as Caroline Aranha as a simian expert who ends up in a relationship with William. David Oyelowo stars as the Gen Sys executive Steven Jacobs whose only interest is profiting from William's pursuit of a viable cure. And David Hewlett stars as the angry neighbor Rodney who eventually answers the question of how a few intelligent apes even stand a chance or be victorious against the machinations of modern man.

Ferociously entertaining, Rise of the Planets of the Apes may give lifelong Planet of the Apes fans what they are looking for - a chance at a new franchise of the story they came to love. New fans should come away with a new appreciation for what is possible with a few new 'damn dirty apes'. The real question is whether fanatic fans will accept the CGI as the medium in which the apes are presented. Although the 2001 Tim Burton Planet of the Apes reboot was not glowingly received, at least Rick Baker's makeup still allowed man to embody monkey like the originals. Maybe as the technology evolves and integrates in silver screen storytelling, Ape fans may need to evolve as well.

WORTH: Friday Night Opening and BluRay