Old School

Conditions: Sweet.

The Balance

When John Kerry accidentally said that a Syrian air strike could be avoided if they gave up their chemical weapons, he did more than allow the Russians to find a way out of another potential middle eastern quagmire, he also opened the door to the Russians trying to redress the balance of power.

WASHINGTON — The U.S. deal with Russia to eliminate Syria’s chemical weapons has pulled the Obama administration into deep waters: the Kremlin’s long-standing drive to put the brakes on American power and to restore Moscow to its place as a pivotal Mideast player.
[...]


What’s more, Putin has for the time being shored up Assad. Equally important to the Kremlin, Russian intervention will enhance Putin’s stature as a geopolitical counterbalance to American power.

- washingtonpost.com/

Indeed, the Russian move has in part helped to apply a great big brake to the usual American military steamroller, and for the first time in quite a while it feels as though a little calming breeze has blown through the corridors of the U.N.



Film Review: Red 2

Inevitably the surprise hit Red has spawned a sequel, but surprisingly the sequel is actually pretty good. Frank and Sarah’s happily ever after has stalled out a little with Frank becoming a tad too over protective and Sarah wanting some excitement. Fortunately the CIA have decided to try and kill them all again and after a couple of great fight sequences we’re off on another whirlwind adventure. This one is about a secret nuclear weapon hidden somewhere in Moscow during the cold war, and everyone’s out to find it – and kill Frank, Sarah and Marvin as well. There’s a lot of globetrotting and new faces, old friends and terrific action sequences, and in amongst it all is Frank and Sarah trying to define who they are to each other – the point being you shouldn’t change who you are in a relationship to try and force something to work, with a side order of Sarah really coming to grips with life as an assassin. Her scene where she is forced to kill an Iranian guard really worked because you could see how shocked she was about it, and how it affected her later on.

Great to see the characters back, although John Malkovich seemed to be reigned in a bit this time, and Bruce Willis seems as weary as ever. I thought there was no way Helen Mirren could do anything that was cooler than firing that giant Gatling gun in the first film, but by hell I think she tops it in this one with a great bit of work with a machine pistol. Catherine Zeta Jones delights as a Russian spy who used to have a thing with Frank, and gets involved in the hunt for the secret bomb. Everyone does a great job of being stylish and cool while still portraying almost a family-type feeling for each other. It’s really sweet. Anthony Hopkins gets involved as an eccentric genius who’s been locked up for thirty years, but he gets a chance to turn bad and really live it up as the cackling villain of the piece. Great to see him having such fun.

One issue with these films is the unrelenting portrayal of how evil various government intelligence agencies are, the CIA in particular. They always come across as a bunch of humourless assholes with no morals or integrity at all. We’ve seen this so many times it has become something of a cliché, albeit a well-earned one. Here it gets expanded to include the British and even the Iranians as well, but not really the Russians, which is a nice change. Ultimately I’m finding these movies to be a great combination of sweet and exciting, with some pretty good performances thrown in as well. These guys may be old, but they seem to be using that to enhance their characters rather than excuse them. Three kisses out of five.



- Peace out