2 GUNS

2 GUNS

Jeri Jacquin, Movie Maven

Coming to theatres this Friday from director Baltasar Kormakur and Universal Pictures comes an action flick that is ruled by 2 GUNS.

This film tells the story of Bobby Trench (Denzel Washington) and Stig Stigman (Mark Wahlberg), two men working the drug cartel to make some money. These guys work well together and want to rob the local bank for a big payday.

There’s one catch – Trench is a DEA Agent and Stig is a Naval Intelligence Officer and neither know about the other. That is until they get in bed, so to speak, with Papi Greco (Edward James Olmos). Trench turns to Deb (Paula Patton), another agent who knows the store.

Stig turns to Quince (James Marsden), who is supposed to support the mission. What none of them see coming is the smooth talking Earl (Bill Paxton) who has no problem taking everyone out to get what he wants.

Now Trench and Stig must trust each other to get this job done and make it out alive.

FINAL WORD: Denzel is always the suave smooth talker and in this role it’s no exception. It doesn’t mean this isn’t pure Denzel because it is. At the same time I really wish he’d find a role that he is once again exceptional.

Wahlberg just loves these films and it shows. He seems to enjoy the action, shoot ‘em ups and one-liners. Nothing wrong with that I just think people expect more these days and for the price of movie tickets they should! He is still a bankable star but that won’t be the case if he continues to accept repeatable characters.

Patton as Deb was transparent immediately and that’s all I have to say about that. Olmos annoyed me unfortunately with his one-sided comments and I’ll leave the viewer to see what those were.

Paxton was awesome as Earl. By this I mean he was unexpectedly evil and in a way that is totally just rotten to the core – well done!

Other cast include: Fred Ward as Admiral Tuwey, Robert John Burke as Jessup, Greg Sproles as Chief Lucas, Patrick Fischler as Dr. Ken, Edgar Arreola as Rudy, Derek Solorsano as Ferret Nose Julio, Kyle Russell Clements as Teemo and Christopher Cook as Thick.

TUBS OF POPCORN: I give 2 GUNS three tubs of popcorn out of five. I do this begrudgingly because I feel both these actors are capable of so much more. This almost seemed like a movie I’ve seen each do before. It was slow starting out and took a while to get momentum. Once it did it was interesting to watch the story unfold.

It’s ambitious but only moderately so. Throughout the film I kept hearing people pretty much put the plot together fast so the 109-minute running time took the wind out of some. That being said its always fun to see Denzel and its always fun to see Mark – so just go with it.

In the end – no one is who they seem!