Movie Review: 2 Guns

It's about time someone in Hollywood put Mark Wahlberg and Denzel Washington in a movie together. These two acting veterans first on-screen pairing is the driving force behind why 2 Guns is so much damn fun.

2 Guns centers around an undercover DEA agent (Washington) and Naval special forces agent (Wahlberg) who are told by their respective superiors to steal $3 million of Mexican drug cartel money from a sleepy small-town bank so they can prosecute a drug lord (Edward James Olmos) for money laundering. The robbery goes off without a hitch, but the men soon get more than they bargained for when they come out with $43 million, causing a bevy of people to come after and attempt to kill them. The two men are forced to work together to find out who's money they stole and who set them up for the robbery.

2 Guns consistently serves up laughs and thrills throughout its entire runtime. I could probably watch Wahlberg and Washington on-screen together forever. Both of them feed off each other so well exchanging one-liners with deadplan delivery and all the jarring between creates a very believable friendship in the process. This is easily one of the most well-matched pair of leads in recent memory and there is never a dull moment when these two are on-screen together (which they thankfully are for about 95% of the film's duration) The twist-heavy story is admittedly ridiculous, but it's coherent and self-aware never really taking itself seriously at all. The objective of this film is to take you for a ride, leaving all realism and logic at the door and it succeeds in it's mission. Adding to the whirlwind of fun is a pair of great, cartoony villains played by Edward James Olmos and Bill Paxton, both of whom make rare big screen appearances for this film. Olmos is appropriately seedy as Mexican drug kingpin Pappy Greco and Paxton is hilarious as a mysterious man who comes looking for the fortune that the pair of cops unknowingly stole from him. An over-the-top movie needs over-the-top villains and Olmos and Paxton deliver the goods effortlessly. This film also benefits from not being too crazy on the action. The action sequences (save for the huge final showdown in Mexico)are quick and well-spaced leaving the audience time to breathe and for the storyline to unfold. In other words, the action is frequent enough for this to be classified as an action movie, but not enough for it to become overwhelming. 2 Guns is a wildly entertaining throwback to the buddy movies of old and kicks off the last month of the summer movie season with a big bang.

4/5 Stars