Retirement rage

But The Expendables (starring Sylvester Stallone, Jet Li et al) is all muscles and grimacing, with none of the froth and finesse that makes Red 2 something to have fun indulging in. There is still an absurd number of explosions and the sort of bodycount you only otherwise see on the news, but having the likes of Bruce Willis, Helen Mirren and Anthony Hopkins cracking jokes in between all of that rather lightens the mood.

The story focuses on the initally unwilling return of retired CIA agent Frank Moses (Willis, easily charismatic enough to still be the leading man in this august cast) to active duty, largely at the behest of his kooky brother-in-arms, Marvin Boggs (Malkovich, hamming it up). Moses is worried about the safety of his non-agent partner Sarah (Mary-Louise Parker, who takes a goofiness cue from Malkovich), but she wants a more exciting life than her man is willing to expose her to.

The plot takes this trio all over the world, leaping from the States to London, Paris and Moscow. Neither architecture nor random passers-by in any of these locations are safe as a ruthless killer (Neal McDonough) with heavyweight backing tracks them, trying to stop them solving the mystery of the lost bomb whose designer (Anthony Hopkins) has been locked up in a looney bin for half his life.

This is not a smart film in the sense that viewers will be expected to follow complex story threads or imagine possible subtleties. But it is very clever in its combination of humour, big bangs, dramatic locations and A-list charisma, delivering an entertaining, high-speed romp.