In a summer full of bloated, overcooked blockbusters, 2 Guns is a refreshingly simple buddy cop movie. Making no effort to ever take itself seriously, it's every bit as ridiculous as it needs to be.
Mark Wahlberg plays an undercover NCIS officer working with Denzel Washington, an undercover DEA agent. Each man assumes his partner is a criminal, and neither knows his superiors are hiding information. But this pairing is so natural and easygoing, it's a surprise no one's put these actors together before.
At the beginning of the movie, they rob the Tres Cruces Bank, which they assume holds around $3 million from a drug lord (Edward James Olmos, who never really comes across as cutthroat). It actually contains about $40 million more, so much that they have to get a cart to wheel it all out. All that money attracts a lot of attention, and eventually they've got cartel henchmen, Navy SEALS, and even the CIA on their trail.
There are plenty of double-crosses and triple-crosses "” maybe the name of that bank was a tip-off "” so no one's exactly sure who to trust. But the tone never stays dark for any real length of time. People get killed or tortured, of course, yet before you know it, Mark Wahlberg is back smacking his gum, cracking jokes, and winking at every lady he sees.
Despite not owning an ounce of originality, 2 Guns more than makes up for it through the chemistry of Washington and Wahlberg, as well as the presence of Bill Paxton. Aside from a bit part in Haywire, he really hasn't been on the big screen in quite some time, and he's terrific for what the role calls for. Basically, imagine his slimeball character Simon from True Lies quit the car dealership and started working for the CIA. He's even got the same creepy mustache.
To say much more would give away 2 Guns' myriad plot twists, so I'll just leave it at this: If you're tired of seeing these overly long, overly serious blockbusters, head over to 2 Guns and enjoy escapism at its best.
