2 Guns

By Robert Murphy

Hey everybody, it’s off to the movies to find out if I wasted ten dollars on a box office bust or not and with 2 Guns I was definitely on the fence on whether or not I’d be getting my money’s worth out of the deal but I was pleasantly surprised with what I found. For starters, what drew me into the movie in the first place was the two lead actors that we had to enjoy, both Mark Wahlberg and Denzel Washington have consistently hit their mark on the films they have been in and 2 Guns was no different. The two are put together in a buddy cop/buddy pretend drug dealer action movie, exchanging not only gun fire along the way but also quick witted blows at one another that strike the funny bone just right. But the best part is that the two don’t even know that they are each undercover agents working towards the same goal. Denzel Washington takes on the role of Bobby Trench, a DEA agent with a swagger and flare of the rat pack era about him and Mark Wahlberg plays Marcus Stigman, a Navy Seal officer who has a cocky, bad boy attitude to him that fits him all too well.

Hey what’s not to love about these two

What follows on screen is a series of double crossings, after the two decide to knock over a bank that ends up carrying way more money than it should have had in it and the two quickly realize that they have been set up and that they are both not who they are pretending to be. So what does anybody do in this kind of situation, dust themselves off and decide to team up and find out just who and why they were set up in the first place.  The two proceed to go back to their individual bosses, crossing over from the Mexican border where they were working on taking down a cocaine kingpin, played by Edward James Olmos. This dusty back drop in Mexico makes for an almost old era vibe where everyone carried a gun and there were legendary sure shots all around that could shoot wings off of a fly and all that jazz. This gets a modern update obviously as Washington and Wahlberg track down their betrayers while showing off some pretty crazy action scenes such as Wahlberg’s character one shotting a helicopter pilot while its flying through the air for example. This being an issue I found with the movie but then again action movies have that hard to believe affect a lot of the times that you just have to get over and just enjoy the epicness of no matter how impossible it may be.

So things went according to plan then?

Washington and Wahlberg have never been better as I’ve said, they honestly are what bumps up this otherwise average, opposites attract, buddy cop, action film. Washington takes on more of an eased back character as opposed to the serious roles he’s taken part in lately and he performs perfectly to the task while at the same time maintaining a gruff demeanor to who he trusts in his life. Then we Wahlberg, who always plays a bit of spunky and full of energy kind of character and that doesn’t change here for as soon as the two decide to work together, Wahlberg becomes a kid in a candy store jumping for joy to have his buddy back. What sets 2 Guns apart from other butt kicking duo movie you might ask, that is that the story has a great plot and features plenty of double crossing, back stabbing goodness that separates the film from just being another action film or buddy comedy. I can’t dig too much though into all the double crossing, mainly because I don’t want to spoil it for the rest of you, you’ll just have to see that for yourself.

I don’t know, it’s nice but is there any good schools near by

Bottom line is I was pleasantly surprised with the experience that I had with 2 Guns, not only was there lots of laughs and action but the story didn’t get lost in all of that, there were enjoyable plot twists and double crossings along the way and brought the action and laughs along with it. This comes together with an all-star cast of characters, Mark Wahlberg and Denzel Washington are on their A game as anyone would expect. The two are what drew me into the movie and I am so happy that they did because they worked so well together, bouncing back and forth off of each other with smart mouthed jabs from Mark and the don’t mess with me attitude of Washington. There are those eye brow raising moments in 2 Guns as I said but it is an action movie and they do tend to happen time and again and often times the ridiculous and awesome stunts are what we all love. In the wake of all the so-so movies I have seen this year, 2 Guns was just what I needed to see to keep what little faith there is to be had in Hollywood lately.

Good:

-Great lead characters, Wahlberg and Washington made a great pair and were perfect for the parts

-The plot twists weren’t shocking but still were much better than I expected from the movie

-Plenty of laughs and action that were balanced perfectly with the story

Bad:

-The questionable action moments, like really questionable

Scully Rating: 8.8 out of 10