RED was a refreshing hit film with old retired spies getting back into action. It had the sight of Helen Mirren blasting the bad guys. It was all tongue in cheek.

RED 2 is more of the same. No Morgan Freeman but we have Oscar winners Catherine Zeta Jones and Anthony Hopkins joining the team.

Therefore we have the potential prospect of Brian Cox (Hannibal Lecter Mark 1) sharing the scenes with Anthony Hopkins (Hannibal Lecter Mark 2.) Alas no dialogue is shared between these two.

RED 2 gets into gear swiftly and the action moves from the USA to Paris to London and Moscow. There are again sinister CIA agents hunting for them along with MI6, Iranians and Russians as well as Byung-hun Lee playing one of the world's top hit men.

Malkovich provides most of the humour this time round and Hopkins plays the jailed scientist who might be not as endearing or befuddled as he makes out to be.

It all moves swiftly along but there is a sense of seen it all better in the first movie despite a few twists.

RED 2 is a follow up action film which reunites various cast members from the first movie. Once again the joke is that a group of ex-operatives, now suffering from the pangs of advancing old age, are called into action once more when their lives are thrown into danger. To be honest, I preferred COCKNEYS VS. ZOMBIES which at least had fitfully amusing OAP action.

RED 2 makes for pretty soulless entertainment, all big CGI explosions and endless shoot-outs with nary a drop of blood, the latter a deliberate choice to pander to the PG-13 market, of course. It feels superficial and overlong, and it doesn't help that Bruce Willis gives yet another disinterested turn. Still, he's a good deal better than walking facelift Mary-Louise Parker, and the continuing embarrassment that is Helen Mirren.

The supporting cast fare a little better here and at least Anthony Hopkins and Brian Cox are making the effort. The less said about Catherine Zeta-Jones, who's made quite the career of appearing in silly, light entertainment Hollywood films, the better. Best of the group is Korean action man Lee Byung-hun (A BITTERSWEET LIFE) who makes something special out of a stock assassin type role. Byung-hun has the most dialogue I've heard from him in an American film and he's funny to boot, as well as being deadly, of course. Some of the action is quite well directed here but the overall result is still lacklustre.

Frank (Bruce Willis) loves the settled suburban life, but girlfriend Sarah (Mary-Louise Parker) pines for the exciting action. Marvin (John Malkovich) drops by complaining that Frank hasn't killed anybody in months. Before Marvin could convince Frank to return, he gets killed or did he?

Helen Mirren returns, and this time adds on Anthony Hopkins, Catherine Zeta-Jones, and Neal McDonough. But it's Mary-Louise Parker's comic timing that drives the movie. There was a taste of it in the first movie, but this time around, she's able to be front and center for the whole movie. Her character's need to get action drives Frank crazy, and drives the movie from a simple blow'em up actionrama. She is funny, and she has a great chemistry with the stoic Frank. Their chemistry was the best thing in the first movie, and is still the best thing in this movie.