RED 2

ACTION/ADVENTURE, COMEDY

The Best Never Rest

8.0 out of 10 | DVD or RENTAL

---

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

---

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

---

Watch Trailer

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.

---

Hitchcock

It Will be a 'Good Evening'

★ ★ ★ 1/2 out of 5 buckets | Matinee or DVD

---

Rated: PG-13 - Some violent images, sexual content and thematic material

Release Date: November 23, 2012 (Limited)

Runtime: 1 hour 38 minutes

---

Director: Sasha Gervasi
Writers: John J. Mclaughlin, based on the book "Alfred Hitchcock and the Making of Psycho" by Stephen Rebello
Cast:  Anthony Hopkins, Helen Mirren, Scarlet Johansson, Danny Huston, Jessica Biel, Tony Collette, Michael Wincott, James D'Arcy, Ralph Macchio

---

Watch Trailer

SYNOPSIS:  Alfred Hitchcock fiances his next big project with Robert Bloch's "Psycho", putting a strain on his professional career and personal relationship with his wife, Alma.

REVIEW: Writer/Director Sasha Gervasi, writer of Tom Hank's The Terminal and director of Anvil: The Story of Anvil, takes on an iconic character in a true master of suspense director Alfred Hitchcock. Black Swan writer John J. Mclaughlin adapts a story based Stephen Rebello's book "Alfred Hitchcock and the Making of Psycho", accounting for Hitchcock's challenges in front of, behind, and away from the camera lens.

Acclaimed Hollywood director Alfred Hitchcock (Anthony Hopkins, The Rite) had just finished directing and distributing Cary Grant's North By Northwest to the American masses. Afterward, back on the Paramount Pictures studio lot Hitch (as he preferred to be monikered) sat looking for his next big project. When he came across the Robert Bloch novel 'Psycho', none of the other treatments or script offers appealed to him. 'Psycho' would be his next project. Turned down from financing from Paramount and other studios, Hitch was forced to finance the picture himself. Hitch's editor/writer wife Alma Reville (Helen Mirren, Arthur), who he had always collaborated with on his film projects, continues to stand by his side - even as Hitch ogles his blond leading lady Janet Leigh (Scarlet Johansson, The Avengers). As the production of the film drags on, the pressure on Alfred Hitchcock mounts for both the film and the relationship with his wife especially when she takes up a writing collaboration with writer Witfield Cook (Danny Huston, Wrath of the Titans).

Although never winning an Oscar, Alfred Hitchcock has been instrumental as the inspiration of directors and filmmakers who have come after him. He launched careers and innovated much of the technical craft that director and cinematographers still use in some way today. Vertigo, North By Northwest, Rear Window, and The Birds, as well as others, are pinnacles of edge-of-your-seat film examples. Some of his films have been remade with fresh current twists and actors, Disturbia naming one, but Hitchcock was the one to thrill and scare audiences decades ago as an original master of suspense. Many of the Hitchcock films I watched as a youth, or discovered even more recently, left an indelible mark to what I considered great filmmaking.

Hitchcock, based on the novel 'Alfred Hitchcock and the Making of Psycho', delves into Hitchcock's madness and methodology. Ed Gein, noted as one of the earliest American serial killers, served as the inspiration of the Robert Bloch novel and served as macabre muse for the director. Hitchcock even takes to feverish dreams with Gein (Michael Wincott, The Crow) counseling him on matters of the heart and of the career. Often rumored or stated that Ed Gein was the inspiration for other films like Texas Chainsaw Massacre in the 1970s, Hitchcock's obsession with the killer and what he had done on an isolated farmhouse in Wisconsin in 1944 would try to spring to life on celluloid. The studios were against Hitchcock and the censors were ready to pull the plug on a domestic release. Alfred and Alma would have to put aside their disputes long enough to attempt to finish a film that had the potential to ruin their lives or bring the director notable glory.

Anthony Hopkins is wonderful as the pair-shaped filmmaker. While not an exact likeness, Hopkins embodies the big belly, the pout, and drooping eyes and lips with all the flair and quiet aloofness that we have seen in many of Hitchcock's films and television projects. At times, Hopkins is spot on with every inflection or enunciation, while at other times he sounds more like Sir Anthony Hopkins. The elegant Helen Mirren is outstanding as the faithful and dutiful wife of a director husband considered a genius, while a creative and accomplished filmmaking professional in her own right. Scarlet Johansson's Janet Leigh looks the part of the aspiring starlet, thankful for the opportunity to work with such an attentive director. Jessica Biel, as the actress Vera Miles, is forced into a secondary Psycho role on the film because of an earlier betrayal to Hitchcock. Danny Huston's Wit plays a hack screenwriter who wants to take Alma's talents, and possibly more, away from Alfred. And knowing that Anthony Perkins is no longer with the living, I am concerned that James D'Arcy (Cloud Atlas) may be wearing an Anthony Perkins suit - a la Ed Gein - because D'Arcy shows uncanny similarity to Perkin in both look and demeanor. It is as if this period biography was shot using a young Perkins himself!

Danny Elfman's music is a nod of the cap to the films of Hitchcock, with long drawn out strings to set the mood. And no movie of this type would be complete without the sharp repeating violin chords that accompany every butcher knife that finds itself by a shower curtain. While Janet Leigh was rumored to have sworn off showers after wrapping on Psycho, there is not a person over thirty-five who hasn't made the stabbing gestures, made the noise, or thought about who may be behind a vinyl motel curtain. Hitchcock has done for scenic motel vacations what Spielberg has done for swimming.

Hitchcock will not be a blockbuster, but it is a riveting, charming, funny, and probing period semi-historical film surrounding the lives and times of Alfred Hitchcock and Alma Reville, and the making of a film that would be a successful highlight of the director's career. If you are a fan of Hitchcock, then you should head to this namesake film as the raven flies.

---

Arthur (2011)

A Drunken Attempt

Director: Jason Winer

Writer: Peter Baynham, Steve Gordon

Stars: Russell Brand, Helen Mirren, Jennifer Gardner, Luiz Guzman, Greta Gerwig, Nck Nolte

RANT: Here is the second movie I took in yesterday. Managed to write the review for Scre4m at Starbucks while waiting to meet up with my friend. After Arthur, we drove back out to the Queens/Long Island border to take in a rock band in the basement of a church. For a $15 donation, the Fabulous Unknowns were pretty good.

SYNOPSIS: A drunken playboy's public misadventures start to affects the image of his mother's foundation, Bach Worldwide. Arthur is given an ultimatum to marry a woman he does not love or lose his near-one billion dollar inheritance.

Who is Arthur? What is Arthur? Should Arthur have been remade? These are the questions one must delve into after watching Jason Winer's direction of the 1981 Dudley Moore classic. Winer, a veteran of television directing with Modern Family and Samantha Who? under his belt, takes a big step and a bigger risk moving into the often disappointing arena of movie reboots. Based on the Steve Gordon stories of the original Arthur and Arthur 2 On The Rocks, Peter Baynham creates a screenplay for Winer that brings the Arthur character into the 21st century.

Taking the original concept for the Dudley Moorefilm, the new Arthur is updated to be more sympathetic, if not every bit the alcoholic. The Russell Brand Arthur spends his money on material things, never companionship. When, that's not entirely true. He does get lots of friends over when he's spending money on them or for them, but he never "pays" for companionship like the Dudley Moore Arthur did.

Instead of John Gielgud's Hobson, we are treated with Helen Mirren in the role of Arthur's nanny. Both the role of the quick-witted butler and the role of the ever diligent nanny bring a little heart to the film. In fact, Helen Mirren, is the heart of the movie. She is gracious and stern - watchful like a hawk, but mindful of when to look away. Russell Brand, although somewhat more likeable as Arthur, loses something. He is intelligent, but with no regard of the limits of what his money can fix. He adores the public and his fellow man, but gives in to the ultimatum of a loveless marriage in order to keep his money. And when he falls for unlicensed Grand Central Terminal tour guide Naomi (Greta Gerwig), he would rather keep her a secret than commit to her entirely. It doesn't really matter, though. The only real tenderness comes between Hobson and Arthur. How Arthur feels about the gold digger Susan (Jennifer Gardner) is how the audience feels about the chemistry of Arthur and Naomi.

Arthur has some high points an funny bits. Toward the end of the film, there is a group of story time children at the New York Public Library who poke holes in Arthur's story that he tries to tell Naomi. If you loved the original, I would leave the 2011 Arthur remake on the top shelf, even if it isn't top shelf material.

WORTH: DVD or Netflix