VOD film review: 2 Guns
Review Overview
Jokers
7Thieves
8Some kind of way out of here
9Chris Bryant | On 14, Dec 2013
Director: Baltasar Kormákur
Cast: Denzel Washington, Mark Wahlberg, Paula Patton, Bill Paxton
Certificate: 15
Watch 2 Guns online in the UK: Netflix UK / Amazon Prime / TalkTalk TV / Apple TV (iTunes) / Prime Video (Buy/Rent) / Google Play
The trailer for 2 Guns features Devlin’s cover of Watchtower, featuring soundtrack regular Ed Sheeran. Just as it climaxes, the soft vocals calmly deliver: “There must be some kind of way out of here, said the joker to the thief.” In terms of the film, truer words cannot be spoken.
Based on a series of graphic novels, Baltasar Kormakur’s film stars the cooler-than-cooler-than-cool Denzel Washington as undercover DEA Agent Bobby Beans, the guy who knows a guy, and Mark Wahlberg, as a sharp-shooting Special Forces operative. Unaware of their respective allegiances, both set up the other in a drug cartel-debilitating bank robbery. When the $3 million haul turns out to be $43 million, the agents begin asking questions, shooting bad guys and shooting each other. A few sniper rifles, silenced pistols and a ’64 Impala later, the action is underway.
Released in a year where Wahlberg’s action hit should’ve been Michael Bay’s Pain & Gain, the spirit of Bad Boys is certainly present within 2 Guns. Wise-cracking, fast-paced dialogue is the film’s crowning jewel, especially when delivered by Washington or Wahlberg. Mismatched cops, forced to work together, nagging and quibbling between the shootouts and car chases, 2 Guns even throws in a couple of huge explosions to really seal the deal. Kormakur’s movie may be at a loss for realism – and the plot falls a little flat – but the style of the piece certainly earns attention.
At one point in the film, Washington arrives, unfazed by the hoards of bad guys present. It’s here that 2 Guns earns its title: a slow-mo shot of money raining, guns blazing and all sorts of things going bang that must be up there with the best action scenes of 2013.
2 Guns thrives on these kinds of clichés. Sure, the characters make a joke of shooting each other and the bad guys are predictably greedy and ruthless, but it could not be any more fun. It’s nothing more – and nothing less- than a sassy, solid action film.
2 Guns is available on Netflix UK, as part of an £9.99 monthly subscription. It is also available to watch online on Amazon Prime Video as part of a Prime membership or a £5.99 monthly subscription.