"2 Guns" starring Denzel Washington and Mark Wahlberg, is a buddy cop action comedy with a twist: both of them are undercover and neither know the other is actually a Special Ops/DEA Agent. Think "Lethal Weapon" meets "Mr. And Mrs. Smith" with less of Angelina Jolie's side-leg and more of Marky Mark's wisecracking. This is the second buddy cop action comedy to premiere in as many months, but is lighter on the comedy and heavier on the action than the Sandra Bullock/Melissa McCarthy vehicle "The Heat".
The biggest thing "2 Guns" has going for it is the crazy-good chemistry between its two stars. You get the sense that Washington and Wahlberg had a blast filming this movie and that they must be best buds in real life. Every time they share the screen, the movie gets a much-needed injection of fun. Watching these two play off each other with all their banter and bluster is a rollicking good time. So much so, in fact, that the rest of the film suffers for it. Whenever only one (or, even worse, neither) of them are on screen, the movie comes to a screeching halt, only to pick up again when they rejoin and the bromance sparks start flying again. Washington gets most of the focus as Bobby, the older, wiser DEA agent, with a supreme confidence underplayed by the actor's typical gruff aloofness. Wahlberg is Stig, the young show-off who can't stop talking or winking at waitresses, but who actually has the bite to back up his bark.
You can tell the script was picked up because of its semi-clever two-undercover-cops premise, but this inevitably gives way to a contrived, too-complicated-for-its-own-good plot featuring not one, not two, but THREE dastardly villains and plenty of double-and-triple-crossing you can see coming from a mile away. Edward James Olmos is the most memorable of the villains as a drug kingpin named Papi Greco who looks like a "Mexican Einstein". He chews the scenery with glee, aided by his raspy voice and craggy face. Bill Paxton also fares pretty well as a crooked CIA agent with an affinity for Russian Roulette out to recover his stolen cash. But poor James Marsden, almost unrecognizable with his chiseled face and buzzed hair, is all but swept under the rug -- he's really just one more bad guy than this movie needed.
The bursts of action are passably fun if not particularly well-choreographed or memorably executed -- although in a summer full of overwhelming spectacle (brawling robots, ravaging zombies, city-destroying demigods), it's nice to see a more traditional, two-guys-with-guns, shoot-em-up kind of action flick. And who doesn't love a good "walk away without looking at the explosion" moment? You probably won't remember "2 Guns" a month from now, but if you have the afternoon off and want to see an old-fashioned action movie without a hero in a cape, then give this one a shot. Watching Washington and Wahlberg's playful relationship alone might be worth the price of admission. If they do give Bobby and Stigs another go-round ("2 Guns"? "2 Guns"?), I hope they streamline the plot and really focus on the stellar chemistry between the two stars, because it's a partnership made in movie heaven.
[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dVNe3RK2fgI[/youtube]
