I've tried to write it before, I'll try to rewrite it simpler: the art of the action comedy is to succeed on both counts. How? No formula exists, but maybe no one did it better than Howard Hawks and Stanley Donen. Both come occasionally to mind when watching Red 2.
Red 2 is the 4th feature film directed by Dean Parisot, and its effectiveness comes as no surprise, as his previous output (which includes the great Star Trek spoof Galaxy Quest, 1999, and the Jim Carrey vehicle Fun with Dick and Jane, 2005) was sparse but equally effective.
Red 2, as the title subtly indicates, is the sequel to Red (Robert Schwenkte, 2010) and charts the adventures of a group of retired secret agents (namely, good and bad guys mixed, Bruce Willis, John Malkovich, Mary-Louise Parker, Catherine Zeta-Jones, Byung-hun Lee, Anthony Hopkins and Helen Mirren, each appearing to be having more fun than the others as they impersonate implausible characters roaming the world concocting and defusing weapons of mass destruction) pulled back from retirement as the free world cannot long remain free without the input of their unsurpassed badassness.
Parisot will probably wont go down in History as a peer of Orson Welles, but for the hi-octane lowbrow sort of stuff The MacMahonian so appreciates (when it's good) he does have the touch Richard Donner, Roger Donaldson and not many others also possess, here veering just a hair toward John Landis style loonyness as the generalized cartoon violence is punctuated by an expertly administered flow of screwball wisecracks.
Reviews of Red 2 were overall unkind, methinks unfairly, and the film was mostly unfavourably compared to its prequel. If in that particular at least the critical consensus is accurate, then Red must be a ball. I haven't seen it, will try to now.