Today's Mini-Review: 2 Guns

2 Guns: ****/*****, or 7/10

Now this is a buddy movie if ever I saw one. The one buddy is Denzel Washington starring as an undercover DEA-agent aiming to bring down a drug lord, the other is Mark Wahlberg starring as an equally undercover Navy intel officer attempting to secure the same kingpin's cash to fund covert Naval operations. Naturally, neither is aware of the other's actual identity – if you think different government situations could adequately work together for a change, think again! – and they know they'll have to kill their partner somewhere down the road, but not before said road screws them both and they can't trust their own employers no more, which leads them to forge an uneasy alliance to get through their common misery alive. It's basically the 'why so serious' version of The Departed, except here the moles have to dig themselves out together. Of course 2 Guns never reaches that film's level of quality, but it surpasses most other recent action movies, mostly thanks to excellent chemistry between Washington and Wahlberg (giving the latter another chance to prove he can actually act, which is still a matter of debate in some circles). The successful and catchy interplay between Washington's relaxed and calculating thinking man and Wahlberg's charming but obnoxiously loudmouth man of action is the result of an admittedly fairly solid script containing plenty of witticisms, absurd but surprising narrative situations and, as expected, a decent amount of gunfights. The movie betrays its comic book roots in an overall over-the-top attitude, with delightfully ridiculous action scenes, the use of politically incorrect stereotyping here and there (the vile and racist border patrol cops for one) and an excessively eerie and villainous bad guy with a routine for sadistic interrogation techniques (Bill Paxton!). Coupled with an abundance of snappy dialogue throughout, as well as a fairly intelligent, though at times a little convoluted, plot for this type of high octane action flick, it makes 2 Guns one of the more pleasant and enjoyable of this year's thrill rides. Ideologically speaking, the movie suggests there's nobody you can trust but your gun. You certainly can't trust government institutions, since they use you and abuse you at their convenience (which makes it all the more ironic I saw this film on the same day US government services throughout the country shut down due to the inability of American politicians to agree on budget measures, leaving the States in chaos). The DEA is corrupt, the Navy is a tool that only cares about its own prestige and turns a blind eye to injustice amongst its ranks for the greater good, and the CIA is nothing but an out of control private army for its top brass who utilize it to get filthy rich by smuggling drugs into the country in cahoots with the Mexican drug lords that only serve as their stooges. Heck, the Mexican drug lord in this movie (an unconvincingly Hispanic but convincingly scary Edward James 'Adama' Olmos) has more scruples and honourable sensibilities than any of the goverment's top dogs! When it comes down to mutual self-preservation you can rely on your best buddy, but once the dust has cleared you can only trust him as far as you can spit, as illustrated by the protagonists' continuing eagerness to plant a bullet into each other even up till the end of the film. It's a dog-eat-dog world, 2 Guns states, but with a good gun you can make sure you're the canine doing the eating, while getting away with a load of cash while you're at it.