There are the shootouts and the slow mos, the conversations in the diner about the relative merits of holding up a bank opposite the place that sells the best donuts and super-hot leads, but the coolest thing about the film is surely the director’s name! The Icelandic director’s name, Baltasar Kormákur, is right there with Nimrod Antal on the cool quotient.
Kormákur’s second collaboration with Mark Wahlberg after Contraband is based on a graphic novel series of the same name. 2 Guns follows Bobby Trench and Michael Stigman, as they go to Mexico to meet a drug lord Papi Greco. Neither knows that the other is operating undercover — Trench is with the DEA while Stigman is with Naval Intelligence. The duo steal a bank hoping to nail Greco but instead open up a can of worms crawling with dirty money, black ops and dirtier officers.
The film is sleek, stylish and bone-crunchingly violent. Animal activists would be quite upset with the hand dealt out to the chickens. One wonders if the bulls in the climax are supposed to be emblematic of Wall Street or the other end of the alimentary canal?
Denzel Washington is Mr. Cool as Trench — he gives some innovative dental ideas. Mark Wahlberg looks buff and blank as Stigman. Bill Paxton, he was Simon the used car salesman in True Lies , is the black ops guy with a penchant for a twist in Russian roulette. The background score is smooth as silk and hard as nails. The palette is all industrial blues, greys and burnt ochre. For a dose of regular action, 2 Guns just about makes the cut.
Genre: Action/comedy
Director: Baltasar Kormákur
Cast: Denzel Washington, Mark Wahlberg, Bill Paxton, Paula Patton, James Marsden
Storyline: A bank is robbed and a whole lot of nasty people are after the money
Bottomline: Scrapes through thanks to the charisma of the leads
