2 Guns

"2 Guns" offers a fascinating scenario: a rough-and-tumble, below-the-border 70s style action-thriller, awash in the influence of Sam Peckinpah and Don Siegel, yet laded with a cynicism that is very 2013.

Mark Wahlberg and Denzel Washington star as two undercover agents - the former working for the Navy, the latter for the DEA - who are misled by their superiors into robbing $43 million of illicit CIA funds from a border-town bank, under the guise that the cash actually belongs to a Mexican drug kingpin. It's an every-government-agency-for-themselves film, with the two stars eventually becoming wise-ass, angry bastions of integrity; the last stand against an old-world military, a law-breaking CIA, a drug-pushing DEA, and a cartel.

The Blu-ray release features a small collection of extras - a dry commentary with director Baltasar Kormakur and his producer, first off, detailing the production and discussing the way the film plays with genre. There's also a selection of short deleted scenes, and a relatively long behind-the-scenes featurette (about 30 minutes, mostly with a focus on the acting team, as well as the film's source material, and its other influences.)

What's most attractive here, however, are the stars themselves. Wahlberg and Washington have an infectious chemistry, gleefully offsetting the narrative's seriousness (there are double-crosses aplenty, obviously.) There's a moment when the two smash their cars into each other, driver's-side windows side-by-side, and pull their guns simultaneously, John Woo-style. Instead of firing, they go wrestling through the windows, rolling through the grass, playing the argument like they're teenage girls. They even wear smiles during the gunfights. These men get the action right, and they get the 70s tough-guy vibe right, but they're also a hell of a lot of fun.

"2 Guns"
Blu-ray/DVD/Digital Copy
universal.com
$34.98