At first glance 2 Guns doesn’t seem to offer much more than a mediocre, high-budget, high-octane film starring Hollywood big shots Denzel Washington and Mark Wahlberg with, you guessed it, two guns. Well, if you were one to assume that, you really can’t be blamed, considering how the film was marketed. However, 2 Guns carries so much more to the screen than what most would typically assume from the poster, which of course features both actors, flying money, a chopper gunner, and yes, two guns.
2 Guns brings you a far-from-generic plot revolving around undercover DEA officer Bobby “Bobby Beans” Trench (Washington) and undercover naval officer Marcus “Stig” Stigman (Wahlberg) who at first have no clue who they’re really working with. Soon enough their true identities come out after both are tricked into stealing $43 million from a CIA-affiliated Mexican drug cartel. Throw in romance, weapons, charging bulls, and exploding kneecaps and you have what can probably be the best action film of the summer.
2 Guns will have you laughing and cringing, oftentimes simultaneously, even though the story could get a bit far-fetched at times. It’s hard enough to cross the border in the first place, so it’s highly improbably that you could do it with a bullet in your leg, but that’s beside the point. Director Baltasar Kormakur (“Contraband”, “A Little Trip to Heaven”) does an excellent job bringing together a group of actors that could deliver a performance that surely stands out from similar high profile Hollywood action films, a feat which in today’s market seems rare.
Both Wahlberg and Washington bring a certain level of charm to the film that would make any female audience member fall for them, assuming that there are still those who haven’t. These two men arguably make the movie the success that it is, since it’s hard to imagine any one else playing Bobby Beans and Stig as effectively as them. What matches and goes even beyond their individual appeals is the chemistry these two actors have together, bouncing off of each other and making every minute of the film enjoyable. Combine this with the intricacy of the storyline and there will hardly be a moment when you’ll want to look down at your phone to answer that text.
This film is rated R for explicit language, graphic violence, and scenes of brief nudity.
