Remember back in March when I talked about being excited to see ‘2 Guns’? Well, I wasn’t let down by the film. ‘2 Guns’ is a buddy action comedy that has its cliches but doesn’t insult its’ audience’s intelligence.
Denzel Washington is Bobby T, or at least that’s his undercover name. He and his crime partner Michael Stigman (Mark Wahlberg) decide to rob a bank that holds Mexican cartel boss Papi Greco’s (Edward James Olmos) 3 million dollars inside. The problem is that neither of them know the other is undercover, pitting DEA against Naval intelligence, until they flee the crime scene with 40 million more than they expected. Unfortunately, once our heroes have the money they realize the only person they can trust is the one that has been living a lie beside them for the past few months.
With a 43 million and change price tag on their heads, Bobby and Stig have to find out who the money really belongs too. How far does the rabbit hole go? Who’s really pulling the strings? Sounds familiar right? It is familiar, but screenwriter Blake Masters never takes you down the ridiculously obvious path. Each time you think you’re in familiar territory he gives enough of a twist to make things interesting.
‘2 Guns’ continuously keeps its’ audience asking questions. Most of the time it’s “how are they going to get out of this?”. Regardless, the suspense and wit pushes the story forward in an entertaining manner that some of the bigger budgeted films could have learned from this summer.
The chemistry between Washington and Wahlberg is great. Almost as though they spent a few years in high school in the back of the alphabetical line goofing off. The always smooth Washington plays the straight man while Wahlberg is the loud mouth in the pair and it works. So much so, you feel like the laughs kept going on set after director Baltasar Kormakur called cut!
No, this film isn’t original in its set up, but it is well done in execution. The acting is solid and rapport between the leads is palpable. As we close out the summer and head toward this fall’s Oscar race, ‘2 Guns’ could have easily been a throw away film. Yet it steers away from being forgettable and settles in the holster of smart entertainment.
Rating: B