Film review: Red 2 (12A)

Undated Film Still Handout from Red 2. Pictured: MARY-LOUISE PARKER as Sarah, BRUCE WILLIS as Frank and JOHN MALKOVICH a Marvin. See PA Feature FILM Willis. Picture credit should read: PA Photo/Entertainment One. WARNING: This picture must only be used to accompany PA Feature FILM Willis.

You can teach old dogs new tricks, or so it seems in RED 2, the action-packed sequel to the uproarious 2010 comedy about a team of retired assassins, who merrily kick butt and run rings around highly trained agents 30 years their junior.

Dean Parisot’s testosterone-fuelled caper is a hugely entertaining and polished piece of nonsense, which ramps up the action sequences as the lean and preposterous plot ricochets between Paris, London and Moscow at dizzying speed.

The dream team of Bruce Willis, John Malkovich and Helen Mirren lock and load once again with giddy abandon, also welcoming celebrated Korean actor Lee Byung-hun to the fray, whose martial arts skills allow for some terrific sequences of hand-to-hand combat in bone-crunching close-up.