2 Guns Starring: Denzel Washington, Mark Wahlberg Directed by: Baltasar Kormakur 2/5 stars By Timothy Stoneman August 3, 2013 No fun here. Just another parody of buddy cop clichés that tries putting a sting in your throat while making you laugh. Well, looks like we’ve come up short. Denzel Washington and Mark Wahlberg make for a likely pair in “2 Guns”. And they should know better from this bucket of blandness. If you don’t understand it then we’re at a loss. Both actors play undercover cops. Washington’s Bobby Trench is a Drug Enforcement Agent, while Wahlberg’s Marcus Stigman is in the Naval Intelligence Agency. Both don’t know that at first during the film’s first opening minutes (where have we’ve seen that before?). Working undercover and going berserk on a Mexican drug kingpin, played by Edward James Olmos, and stealing $43 million from the CIA, led by a sleazingly hollow Bill Paxton, both get mixed up in a crossroad between good and evil. And what’s wrong with a little popcorn escapism like that, huh? Almost everything is. Icelandic director Baltasar Kormakur (he and Wahlberg both collaborated on “Contraband”) and screenwriter Blake Masters (“Brotherhood”) based the film on a series of graphic novels from Steven Grant. But don’t worry. You don’t have to read them to understand the meanings behind this star vehicle. I can’t say the same for the movie, which left me feeling bored beyond belief despite some talented stars in the making. I’m giving it a pass to stars Washington and Wahlberg. These two have a chemistry that’s hard to resist. They bring the best in themselves even when the movie doesn’t. Paula Patton does fine as CIA agent Deb, who mostly squeezes in onto Trench’s bedside. But they’ve both gone their separate ways. What?! Okay, let’s not get too shabby about it. The action in “2 Guns” isn’t all that satisfying. For something this overlong – that feels an hour too short – and insisting on bringing in some rough laughs would lack a sense of stability to its world-class actors. Nothing about this train-wreck in disguise as another “Law & Order” episode seems refreshing enough to make you give a damn. For about fifteen minutes into the movie I thought it had something. But it’s way beyond cheesy. And not to mention disappointing. Rated R for (violence throughout, language and brief nudity) Running Time: 109 minutes Distributed by: Universal Pictures Release Date: August 2, 2013
Posted on: Sat, 03 Aug 2013 16:39:10 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015