Thursday Movie Picks: Deserts

2 Guns

Directed by Baltasar Kormákur.

2013. Rated R, 109 minutes.

Cast:

Denzel Washington

Mark Wahlberg

Paula Patton

Edward James Olmos

Bill Paxton

Robert John Burke

James Marsden

Greg Sproles

Fred Ward

We meet Bobby (Washington) and Stig (Wahlberg) Reservoir Dogs style, sitting in a diner having a fun conversation and planning a bank robbery. They also go to see Mexican Cartel boss Papi Greco (Olmos) in order to make an exchange of fake passports for cocaine. That doesn’t go quite as planned. Quickly, we find out that Bobby is not who he seems. He is a DEA agent and all of this is part of his plan to take down Papi. In his grand scheme, Stig is just collateral damage. He is to be arrested after the bank robbery. In reality, the robbery goes off without a hitch, because Bobby’s people fail to show. Additionally, what was supposed to be three million dollars, at most, turns out to be forty-three million. $43.125 million, to be exact. And everyone is trying to get their hands on it. Then, there is the little matter of Stig’s actual identity. Or who anyone is, for that matter. Basically, everyone trying to kill everyone else over this money ensues.

2 Guns hastily becomes one of those movies where all the good guys are dirtier than the bad guys, providing no safe haven for our heroes. The tougher task for the viewer is figuring out who isn’t crooked. The various angles from which the characters approach things plays out in elaborate fashion. Every few minutes gives us a new reveal which sends the movie careening in another direction. This is interesting for a while, but gets to be a bit much.

On the plus side, the movie recognizes where its strength lies. It is within the personas of our two leads. Denzel does Denzel and Wahlberg does Wahlberg. Turns out, the two have great chemistry. Together, they are just fun to watch. We laugh often at their exchanges and wonder why it has taken so long for them to work together. Because of them, as I am sure it was intended, the whole thing has a Lethal Weapon or Bad Boys vibe that works really well. Regardless of the plot’s machinations, we can enjoy watching two guys who appear to be having a blast.

The other major strength of 2 Guns is something true to the title. Between all the cheeky banter of the good guys and sinister posturing by everyone else we get lots of action. Things go boom real good and at fairly regular intervals. The best sequence, in my opinion, actually features our heroes squaring off against one another via car chase. Somehow this includes fisticuffs between them while both vehicles are moving. Please do not try this at home.

When all is said and done, 2 Guns is a fun movie that rides its two stars to whatever success it enjoys. We are spared their life stories in favor of the chatter that entertains us pretty well. As mentioned, this chatter is aided by the action. It all works to mask its over-populated and convoluted story and does a good job. If ever a movie could breeze by on charm and personality, this is it.

30 Minutes or Less

Directed by Ruben Fleischer.

2011. Rated R, 83 minutes.

Cast:

Jesse Eisenberg

Danny McBride

Aziz Ansari

Nick Swardson

Dilshad Vadsaria

Michael Peña

Bianca Kajlich

Fred Ward

Brett Gelman

Dwayne (McBride) isn't nearly as smart as he thinks. To boot, he is a slacker at odds with his wealthy dad (Ward). Really, he’s just waiting for the old man to die so he can inherit everything. When he lets this bit of info slip to Juicy (Kajlich), the stripper giving him a lap-dance, she tells him she knows someone who could expedite the process for a hundred grand. Of course, he doesn’t have that kind of money. With his sidekick Travis (Swardson), who happens to be good at making explosives, he decides to kidnap someone and force them to rob a bank for him. This is where Nick (Eisenberg) comes in. He’s a pizza delivery guy with problems of his own. He just had a fight with his best friend Chet (Ansari) and he’s attracted to Chet’s sister Kate (Vadsaria), but won’t tell her. He is also the unlucky chap who makes a delivery to Dwayne and Travis. He is quickly knocked out when he gets there. When he wakes up he finds he has a bomb strapped to his chest and is told he will rob a bank today, or else he’s going to go boom. In case you aren’t quite sure, this is a comedy.

Most of the movie consists of us, along with Dwayne and Chet, following Nick around as he decides what to do and figures out how to go about doing it, with Chet’s help, naturally. On both sides of this coin, we get lots of bickering between two guys. There is less where Dwayne and Travis is concerned as the former is mostly in charge. If you boil down all the yelling they do it equals one guy coming up with an idea and the other calling him stupid. Eventually, a course of action is agreed upon which doesn’t go as planned and the cycle starts over. This repetition lends itself to the theory of diminishing returns. The jokes yield fewer and fewer laughs as the movie goes on because they really haven’t changed since the beginning. The only real variation being how inventive the guys get with their swear words, of which there are more than enough.

To the movie’s credit, the plot hurtles forward with a kinetic energy. It rarely slows down, knowing it has to jam everything into an hour and a half. Those brief occasions are to set up our romance, but that’s about it. Most exposition is taken care of during those shouting matches I referenced. The rest of the film is made up of some form of action. Though they lack any real tension, they are occasionally entertaining.

More than any other genre, whether or not we like a comedy depends on how we feel about its stars. You either find certain people funny or you do not. I like Eisenberg okay, but can’t say I think he’s hilarious. I am also lukewarm on Danny McBride. Generally speaking, Ansari and Swardson both annoy me far more than make me laugh. When you add all that up, you get a movie that I believe has some funny moments, but mostly falls flat. The other aspects, like the story and action, are also rather hit-or-miss. Give it an additional demerit for reducing Michael Peña to a total stereotype. Now rewrite sentences three through six of this paragraph to better reflect how you feel about this movie’s stars.

MY SCORE: 5/10