The Phantom Tollbooth

The Brahma Bull Should Get An Agent

2 Guns

Stars: Denzel Washington, Mark Wahlberg, Paula Patton, Edward James Olmos, Bill Paxton, Fred Ward, James Marsden and Robert John Burke
Director: Baltasar Kormakur
Scriptwriter: Blake Master from the graphic novel by Steven Grant
Composer: Clinton Shorter
Universal
Rating: R
Running Length: 110 minutes

What makes a film is chemistry and in this I don't mean blowing up everything in sight. It is actors with timing and that is what “2 Guns” has, even though the storyline is full of holes (bullet and otherwise). The cast seems to be enjoying themselves. Denzel Washington and Mark Wahlberg are partners as two government agents in which Wahlberg is as talkative as a three-year-old, and Washington is stoic, but gets a good line in every once in a while with that wry grin of his. Deb (Paula Patton) is Washington’s sometime girlfriend. Bill Paxton is over the top as one of the villains, while Edward James Olmos is also a villain, but his is the easier-to-talk-to type. He has a Brahma bull as his trademark and gets in a comment or two about living in Mexico. “2 Guns” turns into an artillery range and PETA would be interested in a certain scene.

As the story goes, Bobby (Denzel Washington) and Stig (Mark Wahlberg) are agents from different branches of the government, who are under cover after the same drug lord, Papi (Edward James Olmos). What they don't know, is that they have been set up by their agencies to take the fall because there must be a handful of double-crosses going on around them. Earl (Bill Paxton), Quince (James Marsden) and Papi are three of them, with the possibility of others. When it comes to torture, the villains have specialties from Russian Roulette to the Brahma bull, who probably has his own agent. Soon, Bobby and Stig are on the run and working together, though they have trust issues. There are millions of dollars missing and everyone seems to have a claim to it. Bobby and Stig better get things right soon, or else. (Wasn't this plot something like the Sylvester Stallone and Kurt Russell film, “Tango and Cash?”) Anyway, no one gets thirsty in the desert, the guys drive like Paul Walker and Vin Diesel and guns and hard artillery are everywhere. Just open a car trunk and help yourself. You also wonder just what angle the U. S. government has here and it looks as though the right hand doesn't know what the left hand is doing. What I was waiting for was to see just how large a case you need for $47,000,000.

Mark Wahlberg talks so much throughout this movie, you want to give him a peanut butter sandwich so he will slow down. When you think he has come to the end, Denzel Washington, with a wry grin, tosses in a quip and there goes Wahlberg again. Timing is everything. This is also true with Edward James Olmos, as a drug lord, and his dialogues, some of which are spoken softly to himself with some comments about living in Mexico. In fact, the comments the villains make to their minions are some of the humorous moments, referencing Bill Paxton.

There are car chases, a river crossing, torture scenes, plus a chicken scene that makes one cringe, a bit of romance, and through it all Denzel Washington stays calm and cool. His character knows just what to do and what not to do. In a storyline of betrayals coming from all sides, not knowing whom to trust and finding your life on the line most of the time, Washington and Wahlberg have different ways of dealing with it (watch Denzel’s teeth), but, like folded hands, it comes together fairly well.