2 Guns: Movie Review

2 Guns: Movie Review

Cast: Denzel Washington, Mark Wahlberg, Paula Patton. Bill Paxton, Fred Ward, James Marsden, Edward James Olmos
Director: Baltasar Kormakur

It's back to the world of the buddy cop movie in 2 Guns, the latest movie to team director Baltasar Kormakur back up with Mark Wahlberg. (They previously collaborated on Contraband)

This time around, wise-cracking, fast-talking Wahlberg plays Michael Stigman who's buddied up with Denzel Washington's even-tempered, gold-toothed, hat-wearing Robert Trench. The pair are criminals and are busted on the Mexican border after meeting with Edward James Olmos' drug overlord, Papi.

But unbeknownst to each other, Trench is an undercover DEA agent and Stigman is working for the navy...

Suddenly, when $43.1 million dollars goes missing from a bank they were going to rob to break their way into a drug cartel, the pair find themselves under suspicion from every angle - and under investigation from each other.

Based on a series of graphic novels, 2 Guns is a surprisingly competent comedy actioner, which occasionally flounders around trying to find its own identity. It feels, at times, as if it's unsure whether it's comedy or action, with Wahlberg's constant wise-cracking, smart-ass bouncing nicely off Denzel's usual charismatic underplaying.

But this is not in the vein of Lethal Weapon or the usual buddy up you've come to expect from movies of these types. It's a surprisingly restrained, occasionally twisty movie that proffers up surprises as it unspools. Eschewing some of the usual tropes of the genre, 2 Guns introduces more low-lifes than you'd come to expect in between the explosions and violent bursts of gun fire.

Occasionally though, it does lack a little punch and panache as it skates the line between not quite comedy and not quite out-and-out action. And some of the plot's turns and machinations are a little murky at best, with double crosses and revelations left, right and centre making it confused for you to get a handle on.

Washington and Wahlberg's bromance works well, and the film hints at future outings for the fractious pair; elsewhere, Edward James Olmos' moustachioed Papi gruffly chews up some of the scenery; Marsden scores points as a buzz-cutted Naval officer and Paula Patton oscillates between love interest and captive. But it's Bill Paxton who brings the sleaze and odd menace as someone caught up in this money triangle - with thin tie and cowboy hat, his is a role that crackles when he's onscreen.

All in all, 2 Guns is perfectly serviceable and utterly forgettable. It's due to the easy going chemistry between the two leads that it works, but if it was a one shot film, that wouldn't necessarily be a bad thing.

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