2 Guns

Denzel Washington and Mark Wahlberg do the buddy action movie thing, and they do it well. There’s a satisfying mixture of laughs and whiz-bang in this effort, with Washington getting a chance to really cut loose as an undercover DEA agent unknowingly working with an AWOL Navy man (Wahlberg). The two find out each other’s true identities, and join forces to take down everybody who has double-crossed them. The film is shamelessly ridiculous, but it’s good to see Washington going for laughs, and always fun to see Wahlberg doing his man-child bit. This is Wahlberg in a mode similar to his great success with Will Ferrell in The Other Guys, while the film itself leans a little more towards the edgier side. It’s directed by Baltasar Kormakur, who helmed the Wahlberg mess, Contraband, and this proves to be a much better, and less convoluted, effort. Bill Paxton gets to play a bad guy, and he does it well. He’s played bastards before, but never one this sinister.