Review: 2 Guns

Release date: August 23, 2013
Running time: 109 minutes
Starring: Denzel Washington, Mark Wahlberg, Paula Patton, Bill Paxton
Who to see it with: A Denzel or Wahlberg super fan

David:

I'm a huge Denzel Washington and Mark Wahlberg fan. Seeing them together on the screen is a treat. They have a great chemistry as a pair: Denzel is an ice-cold, ultra-confident operator and Wahlberg is a smooth-talking, hard-headed fighter. They make a great pair and their interactions throughout the movie are fun to watch. The rest of the acting is also very good, with another highlight being Bill Paxton as an ultra-creepy antagonist--it was refreshing to see him back on the big screen.

Unfortunately, the 2 Guns is not simply a fun, buddy cop movie. Although Wahlberg and Washington steal the spotlight whenever they're on screen together, the film's story is confusing at best and distracting at worst. The movie has too many "relevant" personalities and while you are trying to keep track of all the different threads that are going on, it makes it a chore to try to stay on top of what's happening. This effort isn't always a negative, but it is when the threads themselves aren't very engaging and don't always make sense. Finally, there are weird geopolitical overtones that seem thrown in to try to make the story relevant and meaningful but just come off as bad. If the story wasn't so bloated and confusing, this might have been a must see. It's still worth seeing eventually just for Denzel and Wahlberg, but make sure to   

Rent it.