2 Guns Review

• 1st Dec 2013

Denzel Washington and Mark Wahlberg team up for this action caper about two undercover law enforcement officers working the drug trade south of the border. The only odd things is, despite working as partners, neither of them is aware the other one is an undercover officer.

And that’s just the beginning. Having their hand forced into robbing a bank they end up with a large stash of loot that apparently belongs to another American agency. It then also turns out that their own respective bosses have their own plans and before you know it they are both on the run to clear their names, get even with the odds all they while being chased by three different sets of bad guys.

Washington and Wahlberg make for a very effective team.  Washington doesn’t often get to do much comedy, but he’s played plenty of tough guys over the years so the role fits him like a glove. Wahlberg wisely has chosen to play his role as light as possible – allowing his character to steal a great deal of the laughs, but also be unpredictable in his nature when it comes to the action.

The roster of bad guys in the mix is also impressive. Edward James Almos is the cartel leader they are trying to take down who gets to have a lot of fun beating up our heroes. James Marsden is Wahlberg’s clean cut looking, yet back stabbing superior officer, while Bill Paxton steals scenes as a CIA representative there to fetch back the money stolen from the bank job. Paxton it seems has been missing from the big screen for too long, but its roles like this that he really relishes and gets his teeth stuck into, and he doesn’t disappoint.

2 Guns also has a few surprises along the way that you may not expect, twisting expectations in both dialogue scenes as well as development of the characters and story. This is buddy-buddy action comedy at its best. There is chemistry between the leads, each has their own agenda in the film, the villains are colourful, the script is always entertaining, the action is exhilarating, the jokes are funny and it never gets dull.

Steven Hurst