2 Guns
Director: Baltasar Kormákur
Cast: Denzel Washington, Mark Wahlberg, Paula Patton
Length: 109 minutes
Country: USA
Most action films invite you to take a fundamentally fascist view of the world. Don’t mind that all these people are dead, they were the bad guys. This tradition, which traces all the way back to the early westerns, always privileges one guy, or a small group of guys, over the majority. It’s a pervasive element of American film culture, the small and strong triumphing over the weak and many. It’s America’s ideological tool of telling us why communism is wrong, because one good highly-skilled man will always be able to triumph over a thousand guys who can’t fire straight. This has always been the way, from Harry Callahan to Jason Bourne. In 2 Guns, there are two good guys, and a plethora of bad guys from both sides of the law.
These bad guys could have been corrupt CIA agents, mexican drug lords or power-hungry navy seals. In 2 Guns you have the pleasure of all three. They are at odds with the good guys, played by Mark Wahlberg (The Departed, The Fighter) and Denzel Washington (Flight, Man On Fire). We know they are the good guys because they exchange some of the best ‘we’re-in-a-diner-trying-to-order-some-food’ banter I have ever seen. They were the reason I went to see the movie and it just so happened that this is one of those rare action-comedies where the talking scenes are much better than the fight sequences. It’s a very funny, self-aware B-movie, full of vintage cars, mexican stand-offs, villains with classic anecdotes, diners with homely waitresses, and noir bedroom scenes, elevated to greatness by two hilarious central performances. And because the acting is so good, we manage to care about the characters, and what happens to them, even as the plot meanders.
This is one of those rare action-comedies where the talking scenes are much better than the fight sequences
In 2 Guns, Wahlberg invests Michael “Stig” Stigman with all his goofy charm and meathead machismo, and Denzel Washington, replete with a variety of different hats, is so goddamn cool as Bobby Trench he more or less becomes the living embodiment of that wallet from Pulp Fiction. They both scheme together to rob a bank, but Washington turns out to be a DEA agent trying to steal from a mexican drug boss, and Wahlberg is revealed as a Navy Seal. Further complications arise when they steal much more money than they bargained for and the money also turns out to be from the CIA. Calamity ensues as they try to clear their names, recover the money, and save Bobby’s girl, played by the incredibly gorgeous Paula Patton. The film lags a little bit in the second act as all the plot threads tie together but this is forgiven once we finally get to its overblown climax. The film ends guns-blazing, cars-exploding, money-flying-everywhere, in the iconic fashion of Butch Cassidy and The Sundance Kid.
The poster for the film seems to be the ultimate vision of the American dream, a black and white man, back to back, shooting everyone, with millions of dollars falling all around them. They look cool and composed, and don’t seem to be in any actual danger. The whole thing, even the action sequences, seem to just be part of some joke, as if they know they are in a film from which they will survive. This Tarantino-like playfulness with genre is refreshing after the seriousness of most American action films released this summer. You can enjoy yourself because you know that nothing is actually at stake. You watch this film not to learn more about the meaning of life, but to see Wahlberg and Washington crack jokes at each other. These are two actors who have been nominated for and have won Oscars respectively. Together they have a natural chemistry which is electrifying, and justifies most of the stupidity that they go through. Their banter in the opening scenes alone is reason enough to go see this film.
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