2 Guns
Starring: Denzel Washington, Mark Wahlberg, Paula Patton, Edward James Olmos, Bill Paxton, Robert John Burke, James Marsden, Fred Ward, Patrick Fischler
Directed by: Baltasar Kormakur
Rating: R
Genre: Action, Comedy
2013

Times Seen:
Tim: 1

Summary: A DEA Agent (Denzel Washington) and a Naval officer (Mark Wahlberg) reluctantly team to take down a ruthless CIA agent (Bill Paxton).

Review:

Tim: I really like Denzel Washington, and I'm probably slightly biased to his films because he's always just so good in them. The idea of pairing him with Mark Wahlberg in an action comedy is brilliant. Unfortunately, the film is just not what it should be. As much as I like the cast and I love action movies, there's just something missing here. The part are all in place, but it's missing heart. In the end, I thought 2 Guns was sadly a disappointment. This movie suffers because with the talent involved, this movie needed to be significantly better.

I have to say that I'm placing a lot of blame on director Baltasar Kormakur. I'm not very versed in his filmography, but I saw Contraband, and that movie suffered because of poor direction. The exact same thing happens here- once again Kormakur has taken a brilliant concept and translated it into an average movie. He's lucky he had an incredible cast, because the talent in front of the camera prevents this from being a disaster. However, without a good director behind the camera, this movie would never reach its potential.

The biggest problem I had was the script. Now, in some ways, the script is quite good- it's a twisting, turning, unexpected story. And yet, despite all of those present, I never really felt any sense of surprise. This movie didn't engage me enough to care too much about what happened on screen. The stakes just felt far too low. There's also a huge amount of plot holes, some just beyond all logic or reason. One of the worst scenes involves Washington and Wahlberg breaking into a Naval base. There's a shooting on the base, and yet, somehow Washington and Wahlberg manage to escape. Now, in the 1990s, this would have probably been an incredible sequence. However, 2013 is a different world. We've had shootings on military bases before, and what happens- the base is shut down tight, the shooter is found, and within hours, we know just about everything there is to know about that person. Shooting someone isn't hard- it's getting away that is nearly impossible. This movie made a military base shooting and escape seem far, far too easy. I just had an impossible time buying what I was seeing. This is one example of a script with a number of holes. The other problem is that the film doesn't do a good job of clearly explaining the various sides and what was happening. There were too many points in the film when I had to stop and ask myself, "Wait, now what is happening again? What are they doing?" I just lost sight of the big picture. I got all the individual scenes, but Kormakur does a poor job of connecting all the individual scenes together to form something that's more than the sum of its parts. This is a huge flaw.

The cast, luckily, is quite good. Denzel Washington and Mark Wahlberg were saddled with forgettable, one-dimensional characters. They give really good performances and are fun to see interacting with each other. I loved the chemistry between them. The problem is that even with good actors, they needed better characters. These characters were quite frankly beneath both of them. Paula Patton was fine, but she didn't do anything special. Bill Paxton always makes a good villain, but I felt like he was a little too over-the-top. He just seemed far too cartoonish. Still, even though the characters and the dialogue were weak, you have Washington, Wahlberg and Paxton (plus Edward James Olmos!), and those three are so talented they elevate even bad material.

2 Guns is really not a bad movie. There's some nice comedic bits, a lot of great action, and a complex plot. Parts of the movie are quite fun. However, as a whole, this movie squanders its talent and its potential. This movie is far too average. This is the type of movie that should perfectly appeal to me, and yet, there's very little to get excited about here. This movie is disappointing.

Rating 1-10
Tim's Rating: 6.5



If You Enjoyed This Movie, We Recommend: Contraband, Deja Vu