RED 2
Summit Entertainment | Release Date: July 19, 2013 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
47
METASCORE
Mixed or average reviews based on 38 Critic Reviews
Positive:
10
Mixed:
23
Negative:
5
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
88
Chicago Sun-TimesBill ZweckerJul 19, 2013
Red 2 not only delivers the action, laughs and thrills of the original — in many ways it surpasses it. Read full review
75
San Francisco ChronicleMick LaSalleJul 25, 2013
About halfway through Red 2, in the midst of all the laughs and action, suddenly Anthony Hopkins shows up, and he doesn't care one bit that nobody is going to notice his acting in a movie like this. He's going for the Oscar anyway. Read full review
75
Entertainment WeeklyOwen GleibermanJul 18, 2013
The best thing about RED 2, like its predecessor, is its lightness of tone. Too many movies with comic-book roots come on too seriously, even when the comics themselves have a loose, fast, jocular wit about them. Read full review
67
Tampa Bay TimesSteve PersallJul 18, 2013
Anthony Hopkins, new to the franchise, is introduced in a prison cell, in stir-crazy shades of Hannibal Lecter. At 53, Catherine Zeta-Jones is nearly too young for this stuff. Read full review
67
The A.V. ClubIgnatiy VishnevetskyJul 17, 2013
Like its predecessor, it’s a one-joke movie; the difference is that this time around, the joke is better. Read full review
63
Philadelphia InquirerDavid HiltbrandJul 21, 2013
In its long, punishing final act, Red 2 goes beyond its mandate as a lark to pose as a true action caper. Read full review
63
RogerEbert.comOdie HendersonJul 19, 2013
I did my homework and watched the original "RED." It was just as stupid as this movie, yet I liked it a little more. Read full review
63
USA TodayScott BowlesJul 18, 2013
Red 2 is one of those sequels that's easier to follow if you've seen the original but more entertaining if you haven't. Read full review
63
ReelViewsJames BerardinelliJul 18, 2013
The film has its charms but the end result feels like warmed-over James Bond… and not even especially good 007, at that. Read full review
63
McClatchy-Tribune News ServiceRoger MooreJul 17, 2013
Red 2 goes down easily, from Marvin’s demented moments of relationship advice to Dame Helen’s tender and amusing “Hitchcock” reunion with Sir Anthony. There’s a knowing twinkle in their eyes, and in everybody else’s. “Yeah, we could’ve done a Bond film,” they seem to wink. “And it would’ve been a bloody fun one, at that.” Read full review
60
EmpireStaff (Not credited)Jul 29, 2013
A fun, frothy return for Frank and his creaky commandos. Read full review
60
New York Daily NewsJoe NeumaierJul 18, 2013
It’s never laugh-out-loud funny or inside-track smart, but in a summer full of bombastic failures, a lack of pretense is enough. Read full review
60
The Hollywood ReporterJustin LoweJul 15, 2013
Not that it isn’t entertaining, but the film's premise is certainly well past its “use by” date, resulting in another passably palatable sequel distinguished by a lack of narrative and stylistic coherence that could potentially underpin a really viable franchise. Read full review
60
VarietyJustin ChangJul 15, 2013
While Bruce Willis, John Malkovich, Helen Mirren, et al. are still good for a few chuckles as a gang of superannuated government assassins, this globe-trotting action-comedy diversion applies a bigger-is-better philosophy across the board, upping the stakes, the firepower and the travel budget, but keeping real thrills and laughs at a modest trickle. Read full review
58
Christian Science MonitorPeter RainerJul 19, 2013
It’s nice to see oldsters cavorting in kaboom movies, but a little of this stuff goes a long way. Read full review
58
The PlaylistKimber MyersJul 18, 2013
Overall, this is an action-comedy that should be as full of laughs as it is explosions (So. Many. Explosions.), but there’s little joy other than letting Mirren be (super) sexy and Malkovich deliver a few good lines. Read full review
54
Film.comWilliam GossJul 19, 2013
Every double-cross and ticking clock is familiar in the worst ways. Read full review
50
New York Magazine (Vulture)Bilge EbiriJul 21, 2013
No movie with this much ass-kicking should feel so lifeless. Nothing in Red 2 is actively offensive, but for the most part, it’s hard to really care for anything that’s happening to these characters. Read full review
50
The New York TimesNicolas RapoldJul 18, 2013
What pops more than the gunfire are the line readings, where Ms. Parker, especially, but also Mr. Malkovich and Ms. Mirren, can give personality to standard action repartee. Read full review
50
Portland OregonianJamie S. RichJul 18, 2013
Willis appears to have finally grown bored of his own shtick, and Malkovich spends most of the movie looking humiliated. Read full review
50
Los Angeles TimesBetsy SharkeyJul 18, 2013
Red 2 is much more of a mixed bag than it should have been. Read full review
50
St. Louis Post-DispatchJoe WilliamsJul 18, 2013
Red 2 is not just a bad movie, it’s bad karma. And the target audience of adult moviegoers who respect the names in its once-vital cast have a bull’s-eye on their collective cranium. Read full review
50
Arizona RepublicBill GoodykoontzJul 18, 2013
There is a fine line between silly dumb fun and out-and-out stupidity, and “Red 2” crosses it one time too many. Read full review
50
Chicago TribuneMichael PhillipsJul 18, 2013
My favorite thing in the movie is the way co-star and Korean action icon Byung Hun Lee uses his feet of fury to hoist a paint can and send it flying. Read full review
50
Austin ChronicleKimberley JonesJul 17, 2013
It’s all supremely silly stuff, and amusingly so, as long as you don’t stop to think about all those blameless officers and agents cut down in the line of mindless entertainment. Read full review
50
Boston GlobeTom RussoJul 17, 2013
A sequel that has some snappy interplay, typically courtesy of Malkovich, but mostly feels like a cast working to manufacture what came naturally the first time. Read full review
50
Village VoiceStephanie ZacharekJul 17, 2013
Red 2, disappointing in so many ways, isn't torture to watch, in part because Mirren has even more to do than she did in the first installment. Read full review
40
The TelegraphTim RobeyAug 3, 2013
Dean Parisot, who made the delightful Galaxy Quest, has a funnier sensibility than the first movie’s director, Robert Schwentke, but he’s still defeated by a script that’s over-complicated and under-sophisticated. Read full review
40
The GuardianAndrew PulverAug 2, 2013
Like the first one, it's played for laughs in-between bouts of mayhem; most of the gags are off-target, though Mirren's Nancy Mitfordesque assassin gets a pretty good kill ratio. Read full review
40
Total FilmCurtis WoloschukJul 29, 2013
Returning screenwriters Jon and Erich Hoeber have penned a surplus of minor melees and major set-pieces. Read full review
40
New Orleans Times-PicayuneMike ScottJul 19, 2013
You can color me unimpressed. Read full review
40
Wall Street JournalJoe MorgensternJul 18, 2013
Any movie that gives Helen Mirren a chance to shoot really big guns, wear an ermine astrakhan and channel Bette Davis as Queen Elizabeth can't be all bad, and Red 2 isn't, though it comes close. Read full review
40
Time OutKeith UhlichJul 18, 2013
As in the first film, the seasoned-pro cast provides the few fleeting pleasures to be found. Read full review
37
Washington PostStephanie MerryJul 18, 2013
The bigger surprise is just how clunky and unsatisfying this follow-up feels. Read full review
30
The DissolveTasha RobinsonJul 17, 2013
The focus is much more on Sarah, Frank, and their repetitive, ugly dynamic than on the giddy elements that made the first film trashy fun. Read full review
25
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Adam NaymanJul 18, 2013
How many Oscar winners does it take to save the world? Red 2 gathers together a collection of lauded thespians – from A(nthony Hopkins) to (Catherine) Z(eta-Jones) – and leaves them to float on a sea of action-flick clichés. Read full review
25
New York PostKyle SmithJul 18, 2013
How bad could the boneyard be compared to sitting through this execrable piece of non-entertainment? Better dead than RED 2. Read full review
25
Slant MagazineChris CabinJul 17, 2013
An awfully expensive and grossly extended Cialis commercial. Read full review
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