2 GUNS

DIRECTOR -Baltasar Kormákur

SYNOPSIS- A DEA agent and an army ranger are betrayed by their respective masters and must form an uneasy alliance to discover the truth.

You would not think that action and comedy would mix, well on paper at least, and yet the formula has proven surprisingly effective stretching all the way back to  the Indiana Jones films   Of course it’s not just a case of throwing everything together and hoping for the best - but there’s no denying that some producers seem to quite like this approach.

2 Guns sets the tone right from the offset when we see our two heroes burn down a diner to cover a bank robbery (which actually makes sense when put in context ………...sort of).  The fast- moving pace is kept up throughout the movie and prevents the action from stalling at any point.  Simultaneously, however, the film’s strong script allows for a plot with multiple betrayals and double crosses without tying itself in knots. This allows the film to undergo something of a tonal shift halfway through - the laughs are still there but there is a far greater threat to our heroes and far darker consequences if they fail.

Washington and Wahlberg deserve the lion’s share of the credit,in a film like this the need to empathise with our main characters is vital. Both leads do an admirable job of getting the audience behind them whilst, at the same time, still playing real (if slightly over the top) characters.   The aforementioned tonal shift would doubtless have been far more jarring and could have derailed the film if not for W + W’s efforts.  Without them then the two lead characters would have been little more than cardboard cut-outs.  Wahlberg in particular has his work cut out for him as he plays the funny man to Denzel’s (relatively) straight man who is motived by (the bog standard)cliches of ‘honour and duty’, however, the sincerity with which he plays this part enables the viewer to believe fully in what he is trying to do.

Others in the film are not so fortunate with their part; Edward James Olmos is utterly wasted (as an actor, not as in after a night of drinking) as a standard drug-kingpin who’s only there to move the plot along, Bill Paxton is entertaining as the film’s main villain, CIA agent Earl, but more could have been done besides the  well-worn crazy cop bit (he even plays Russian Roulette), Paula Patton has an interesting role which starts out boring and bland but which gets more interesting as the movie progresses.   Of course, in all fairness, the film is not called 2 Guns for a reason and the focus is very much on W + W in the mould of the best buddy cop movies.

FINAL VERDICT 8/10 Daft yes ,over the top? yes  ,Fun definitely