I bought 2 Guns under the pretence that I would be watching a standard action movie, jam-packed with explosions and cheesy one-liners; all executed by two very well established actors. In other words, the main appeal for me was how minuscule the margin for failure seemed to be… I’m not sure how they managed it but, unfortunately, failure is exactly what was achieved.
Trench (Washington) and Stigman (Wahlberg) are two undercover agents from separate organisations within the US government, unaware of one another’s true identity. Trench is from the DEA; their plan is to acquire sufficient evidence against drug lord, Papi Greco (Olmos). Stigman is under orders from Navy; their plan is to rob Papi’s drug money as “funding for covert naval operations” – I’m not sure how he was convinced, but whatever.
Long story short, they were both set up by members of their respective organisations as patsies, tasked with stealing a drug lord’s money for less than honourable reasons. It all turns sour and the remainder of the film is spent figuring out who, why, how to seek revenge and how to get out of it all with their asses intact.
To be perfectly honest, there were far too many plot twists to follow – perhaps it worked in the original comic book format, but its way too messy on the big screen and I found myself losing interest very quickly. It’s like they were aiming for some sort of social commentary on the corruption of governmental authority, but it should’ve and could’ve been done a lot subtler.
The characters were, for the most part, annoying – particularly Earl (Paxton) of the CIA. His entire role is to walk around like some big shot American with too much power, intimidating anybody he comes across with long-winded speeches and unnecessarily aggressive interrogation techniques. Stigman has far too much to say; he’s constantly trying to be funny, but only really hits home with roughly 1 out of every 25 smart comments. Trench has very little personality, serving only as a tool to drive the plot forward and a springboard for Stigman’s “jokes.” As for the rest of the cast, they’re barely worth a mention.
I know I seem like a harsh audience, but I always give props where props are due; the final shootout was entirely on point. It had a Grand Theft Auto mission feel to it, you know; bullets flying everywhere, plenty of near misses, great shots and swarms of enemies… it just didn’t last long enough to atone for the previous 100 minutes of utter disappointment.
That being said, I guess it’s still worth a watch. I mean, it’s rated quite highly on IMDB and a lot of my friends liked it, it might just be me – just don’t say I didn’t warn you.
2 Guns misfires with a 3/10
Sarah Conner
2 Guns at CeX
