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Robert Schwentke

Red 2 – Robert Schwentke (2013)

Light Netflix entertainment. Apparently at some point I also saw the first “Red”. Judging my review of part 1, I found it entertaining.

Bruce Willis is again an old superhero. He is approached by his friend and former colleague Marvin (a weird John Malkovich) and talked into another assignment.

Just as with the first film, there is a stack of big actors in this film. One of them is the marvellous Catherine Zeta-Jones, but there are also David Tewlis (always fun) and a highly amusing Anthony Hopkins.

Some bad guys have bad plans with the world, Frank and company set out to prevent it. There is of course action, humour and a little romance.

Light entertainment, but not bad.

Insurgent * Robert Schwentke (2015)

Part of the “Divergent” ‘series’, this two-hour-scifi is done by another director. I do not remember a whole lot of part one, just that it is not really good. Not bad enough to discard “Insurgent” apparently. Too bad, because this film of Robert “Red” “The Time Travellers Wife” Schwentke is very, very weak.

Again we follow “Tris” who is ‘divergent’, different from the class-society that was made up by the leaders of the only remaining city on earth. Of course ‘divergents’ are a threat to the government and hunted down, especially when the leader Jeanine (Kate Winslet) realises that she needs a ‘divergent’ to solve a mystery. This makes a drama playing in some future. There are action elements and of course scifi as well.

The acting is largely unconvincing, especially of the main characters. The story is not particularly interesting either and there are not really other elements to lift up the film a bit. “Insurgent” is not completely horrible, but it is just a (below) average film.

The Time Traveller’s Wife * Robert Schwentke (2009)

A film about Heny (Eric Bana) (or judging the title, the film is actually about his wife Annette) who jumps back and forth in time without having any influence on when he leaves and where he goes to. To make a story, Henry seems to only jump through his own life and that of the ones that he loves. He meets his wife when she was only a child and by the time they have about the same age, they get married. Henry can even meet himself at a different age or his mother or his father.

The people in Henry’s life just have their lives at a normal paces. It is just that they meet Henry at different ages. After a while they understand his situation. This is worked out better in some scenes than in others, but the starting point is enough to make an entertaining film. However the story has some inconsistencies and a few mistakes, “The Time Traveller’s Wife” makes nice romance and drama that work well.

Red * Robert Schwentke (2010)

“Red” opens drowsyly with Bruce Willis as an old man who keeps calling his retirement agency because he likes the voice on the other side. Just when I said: “I thought this was an action film” it becomes clear that Frank Moses is not just some old man, he is RED, retired and extremely dangerous. He gets into a situation which forces him to kidnap Sarah and look up some old colleagues. A hip action-comedy unfolds with besides Willis, Morgan Freeman, John Malkovich, Brian Cox and many more. It all results in a quite typical film with the obligatory chasing-scenes, explosions, shootouts and fighting. The story brings no surprises, but the star-teams makes “Red” an entertaining film and there are some laughs and chuckles.