One Minute Movie Review: Red 2

DC Comics has, to this point, with the exceptions of the dreadful Dark Knight trilogy & nearly sacrilegious revamp of Superman, not matched Marvel in its ability to capture audiences' attention, excitement, and, therefore, dollars.  Two of their lesser know attempts, over the past few years, were The Losers, which did just that at the box office, & the Bruce Willis vehicle, Red, meaning Retired Extremely Dangerous, which was a fairly decent flick that achieved mild success.  So being 1 for 2, the brain trust at Lionsgate and Summit decided to take a risk & deliver a sequel to the latter.  Imagine a really geriatric version of the Expendables with fewer guns & glory, but with a slightly more intriguing plot & humor.    This time the director of the mildly funny, mostly corny, Galaxy Quest, Dean Parisot steps into the big chair to try his hand at the action spy genre.   So to keep this simple, I'll give you a quick glimpse into the good, the bad, & the ugly of this fare.  The good: Willis exudes a McClane like charm and energy in this film, unlike his last three Die Hard installments, & the remaining cast is very entertaining & "click" well together.   The bad: silly plot with even more silly action sequences that are so over the top that they are comical on accident.  The ugly: this could have been an exceptionally cool film, especially drawing from the returning & added talent pool; instead it feels lazily crafted, grabbing for a few, sleek effects & sequences, & creating a so-called complicated story line that ends up being more predictable & downright goofy than thrilling and effective. These factors eclipse any potential this film may have possessed.   However, if you're not looking to "think" too hard & just want a fun ride of a picture than Red 2 delivers.  2 out of 5 Kernels: one of those, coulda, woulda, shoulda of's.