2 Guns is not my type of movie because it isn’t sure what it wants to be. It doesn’t take itself too seriously, but it contains relationships between the characters that seem meaningful. At times, it’s a terrible drama. At times, it’s a comedy that isn’t funny. At times, it’s a lame attempt at a shoot ’em up in Quentin Tarantino style. Its lead actors are all over the place. In short, it’s a movie that doesn’t know what it wants to be. It’s also a movie that wastes the talents of two great actors, Denzel Washington (Training Day, American Gangster) and Mark Wahlberg (Shooter, The Italian Job). It’s a little ironic because this was Washington’s first movie since his outstanding performance in Flight and the last movie Wahlberg shot before his outstanding performance in Lone Survivor. I wouldn’t go so far as to say it’s a movie that either of these actors wishes they had not done, but it is a movie that I wish they hadn’t done.
I suppose Baltasar Kormákur’s (Contraband, A Little Trip to Heaven) goal was to keep us guessing from the very first scene until the very end. Much like the theme of American Hustle in terms of which characters are good, which are bad, and who is trying to hustle who, 2 Guns attempts the same thing but isn’t nearly as successful. This is not the reason it did not get nominated for more than a handful of Academy Awards like American Hustle did. It got nominated for zero Academy Awards because it was a very dumb and only slightly entertaining movie. The chemistry between Michael ‘Stig’ Stigman (Wahlberg) and Robert ‘Bobby’ Trench (Washington) is good, but they are playing corny characters that hold positions where you wouldn’t think corny. Wahlberg can do comedy very well, and Washington has played characters with a humorous side. But seeing this clown around in one second, trying to kill each other the next, and becoming buddy-buddy the next was too much to take.
There’s comedy. There’s action. There are car chases. There are plenty of shoot ’em up scenes. It’s a little too smart for its good. It wants to be both Lethal Weapon and Bad Boys at once, and, as a result, it sort of falls flat on its face. The chemistry between these two A-list actors is forced and doesn’t work. There are far too many coincidences along the way. You never really know if the movie is trying to be convincing in its storytelling or just making fun of itself. Bill Paxton (A Simple Plan, U571) is thrown in because there aren’t enough villains in the film. His henchmen are another crew to take out Stig and Bobby to get the money.
There are more than 50 movies that were released in 2013 that are better than this one. Unless you see everything Washington and Wahlberg are in (and even I don’t do that, and Washington is one of my ten favorite actors), you should avoid this movie. You’d have a better time watching (or re-watching) the Lethal Weapon or Bad Boys movies.
Plot 5/10
Character Development 4/10
Character Chemistry 4/10
Acting 7.5/10
Screenplay 7/10
Directing 6.5/10
Cinematography 7.5/10
Sound 7.5/10
Hook and Reel 7.5/10
Universal Relevance 6/10
61.5%
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