2 Guns: Just another mediocre/below-average summer action movie

After the disappointment of R.I.P.D., didn't think it would get much worse.

2 Guns:
Now despite what I said above, this film is not worse than the MIB rip-off, it's equally as mediocre. The film follows Denzel Washington and Mark Wahlberg, who are playing, well, basically themselves, but they're bank robbers, and they are in cahoots with the Mexican Cartel. But, unbeknownst to each other, they are both undercover operatives: Denzel is DEA, and Wahlberg is a Naval officer. After being betrayed by their respective organization and each other, they reluctantly band together to take down a sadistic and crazy government agent, the head of the Cartel, and a corrupt Naval officer. The film's cast also features Paula Patton, Edward James Olmos, James Marsden, Fred Ward, and Bill Paxton, who are good actors, but they don't have much to work with. Wahlberg and Denzel should make a great team, but they have only a sliver in chemistry. I don't blame that on them, I blame that on the script. The film (just like R.I.P.D. and Oblivion, two other disappointing blockbusters from this year) is based on an obscure graphic novel from an indie comics publisher. The script is pretty bland and uninteresting, and the entire film is just sort of boring. The action scenes are few and far between, and when they do happen, they're short and sort of vanilla. The humor just sort of falls flat, and the romance between Denzel and Patton is kind of forced. The plot is uninteresting, and there's no shocks or surprises. The film is written by Blake Masters (creator of the series Brotherhood). Masters has done good writing before, so I don't know why this film turned out so bland. I don't even know why the film got an R, there's violence, but it's not too graphic. There's some swearing, drinking, and there's a few bloody headshots, but nothing too gruesome. Just like A Good Day to Die Hard, just because it's rated R, doesn't make it more bad-ass, just more disappointing. I didn't go into 2 Guns with high hopes, but I went in expecting something more than a short, formulaic action movie. This makes Fast and the Furious 6 and The Hangover Part III look like masterworks of modern cinema. 2/5 stars.

 (Image: Wikipedia)