2 Guns

 

I am not (too) ashamed to admit this but I absolutely love Mark Wahlberg.  Whether the entertainment factor is caused by intentional or unintentional means Mark Wahlberg is always watchable.

 

The trailer for 2Guns was enough to convince me that the film would be worth a look.  It was also enough to convince me to push Kick Ass 2 down the cinema viewing queue.  I didn’t see that one coming.

PLOT:  Robert “Bobby” Trench (Denzel Washington) is a DEA agent deep undercover with the mob ran by Papi Greco (Edward James Olmos).  Bobby meets Michael “Stig” Stigman, (Mark Wahlberg) who is undercover with Navy Intelligence, and the two agree to rob a bank and steal $3million belonging to Greco.  After the robbery goes wrong Bobby and Stig find themselves being hunted by several government agencies and the mob.  END PLOT

2Guns relies on a “who’s playing who” format however this does make the plot seem unnecessarily complicated.  It could have been more streamlined if they had cut Deb’s (Paula Patton) character completely.  Although the storytelling is quite messy it does all come together quite nicely in the final shootout.

Denzel Washington and Mark Wahlberg are a great double team.  Washington brings a cool dryness to his comedy whereas Wahlberg turns into a hyper puppy that winks…..ooh the winking……..*sigh*

When Washington and Wahlberg are together the film noticeably lifts and the banter zips along nicely.  Unfortunately there are sections of the film when they are separated for a tad too long.

 

Bill Paxton and Edward James Olmos provide very capable support and although James Marsden was perhaps slightly miscast it was nice to see him on the big screen again.  Paula Patton, Bobby’s love interest, was absolutely awful.  The character was the weak link in the film and Patton’s performance made it all the more obvious.

The action is good old fashioned “shoot em up” and when that wasn’t enough it was upgraded to “blow shit up”.  This isn’t a complaint as the set pieces were generally good fun. 

2Guns is by no means perfect and there were two completely unnecessary scenes in the film:

1: Denzel Washington’s contract clause which states that he must be lying in a bed as a half-naked woman parades slowly around him has now become really sleazy.  Well done to Paula Patton on the wonderful body because this must surely be the reason she got the job.

2: The chicken shooting scene.  The point of the scene was to show how good a shot Stig is however there were many other ways they could have done this.  This entire section made me feel quite uncomfortable – it was such a bizarre setting to try and make funny.

The film does have some flaws but the laughs make up for this.  The chemistry between Washington and Wahlberg is more than enough to carry the film and it makes me wonder if they will sign up for a sequel should the opportunity arise.  I won’t be upset if they do.  2Guns gets 7.5/10 and will almost certainly be a DVD purchase when the time comes.