Despite the crap, meathead name, this film isn’t nearly as dreadful as it perhaps could have been with different actors. On IMDB, I read that Vince Vaughn and Owen Wilson were initially cast in the roles that Denzel Washington andMark Wahlberg thankfully stepped into. I doubt I'd be advocating it quite as much if they had stuck with the original choices... Washington plays Bobby, a DEA agent trying to take down a drugs cartel. Wahlberg is Stig, part of a naval intelligence operation. They rob a bank while they’re both undercover so each thinks that the other is an actual criminal then they’re double-crossed by everyone under the sun. Sounds confusing but it really isn’t.
2 Guns Trailer
Wahlberg has been in some fantastic action flicks (The Departed) and some brilliant comedies (Ted), so I’m glad he’s combining his buff bod (I definitely can’t get away with saying that) with his cheeky charm, ending in an attractive mix that makes me want to watch him wink at waitresses and wield a weapon at the same time. His chemistry with Washington, the guy whose team you always want to be on, works because Denzel brings gravitas to a role that could easily be lost in the millions of others like it. Stig’s eager puppy dog character, whose aim with a firearm is disturbingly accurate, banters excitedly with Bobby, desperate for some acceptance, some “people”, some family. Bobby keeps him at arm’s length but like us, as the film goes on, he can’t help but grow attached to Stig, despite being shot by him in a “friendly fire” of sorts.
It’s easy for action films which involve drug cartels and dodgy coppers to become very run-of-the-mill, which is why the actors are important. Denzel has been in some bad films but I don’t think you could accuse him of being a bad actor in them (I thought something similar about Mark Wahlberg until I saw the fairly dreadful Pain and Gain…more about that in a couple of weeks). They really bring the bants and the belief that they are who they’re pretending to be. Paula Patton, the gorgeous actress (The inspiring Ms. Rain in Precious) married to Robin Thicke who famously gave permission for him to shoot that video (fool), is Bobby’s sort of love interest, whose character is more complex than you’d expect. Of course, being female, her role is much smaller than it should have been.
It all goes a bit An Officer and a Gentleman when the Naval officers start wandering around (that’s not a complaint) but 2 Guns is an exciting take on a tried and tested format.
4*
