This might seem out of left field on this newly crowned Outlander fan site, but I’m here to tell you that RED 2 is fantastic.
*record screech*
“Why are you ruining our Sam Heughan party, girl?”
Just bear with me for a second. We’re talking John Malkovich, Bruce Willis, Helen Mirren, Mary Louise-Parker, and Anthony Hopkins. In an action movie. I think it’s exponentially better than the first–plus, you really don’t need to have seen the first movie to enjoy this one. This is your summer movie to see with your parents, grandparents, in-laws, etc. It is pure popcorn fun with some amazing actors. I was lucky enough to go to the press junket in New York, and have picked out the best moments for you guys below:
The writers have a nickname for John Malkovich, and it is Bacon.
Elise: I’d like to hear a little about the idea to have [John Malkovich’s character] Marvin dispense relationship advice; do you think he has ladies in every city? He’s got to have groupies, at this point. I’d like to hear a little bit about how that came about.
Writers Jon & Erich Hoeber: Well obviously there’s no one less qualified in the entire world to give relationship advice than Marvin, yet he somehow, through inappropriate analogies and whatever, does manage to put across a few good points. For us it was just the absurdity of it that we found enjoyable and the fact is Malkovitch is so funny and he brings so much to the character even in the first movie he did the role very differently than I imagined and it was all better.
We call John “bacon”–everything’s better with bacon. It’s basically the greatest screenwriting cheat in the world—you’re better than you ever were before. It makes us look good.
Helen Mirren understands the importance of footwear.
Elise: I was wondering—do you think Victoria prefers killing in formalwear, or does it just work out that way half the time?
Helen: *laughs* I think she absolutely prefers killing in formalwear, quite right. As long as she’s got the right shoes on, and those shoes are very, very important. And in the first one, there’s a sequence when I take a bag and out of the bag come these combat boots—that was completely my idea, because I thought no woman can do this job in high heels. You cannot run. If you’re going to be serious about it, that is.
Elise: Would you consider doing a superhero movie? Because I would watch that.
Helen: Oh yes, of course. Well, superwoman, really, unless I’m the baddie. Probably I’d have to be the baddie, because I’m British.
Bruce Willis is 95% testosterone.
All cast members agreed that Bruce is the real deal. I have to admit, he was larger than life. He took control of the press conference and tried to get two reporters to make out. He had everyone laughing and brushed off the PR guys when they said we were over time.
Mary Louise-Parker said that she feels like he can take out anyone in the room, at any time. He’s supposedly very conscious of safety at all times on set, making sure that people are using the weapons properly and with supervision. Which brings me to…
Movies use real guns, with blanks.
Really though, am I the only one who didn’t know this? I totally thought they used fake prop movie guns. At several points in the press conference, they referenced how dangerous it is on set and how they had to be super careful about where their guns were pointing. News to me!
RED 2 opens Friday, July 19th! Go take your dad. You won’t regret it.
