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2 Guns

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2 Guns
Two men, back to back, firing guns, with a helicopter overhead and money blowing in the wind. The man on the left is wearing sunglasses, a brown hat, a black shirt, and beige pants. The man on the right is wearing a white shirt and dark pants.
USA theatrical release poster
Directed byBaltasar Kormákur
Screenplay byBlake Masters
Based on2 Guns
by Steven Grant
Mateus Santolouco
Produced by
Starring
CinematographyOliver Wood
Edited byMichael Tronick
Music byClinton Shorter
Production
companies
Distributed by
Release dates
  • July 30, 2013 (2013-07-30) (New York City)
  • August 2, 2013 (2013-08-02) (United States)
Running time
109 minutes[2]
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish
Budget$61 million[3]
Box office$131.9 million[3]

2 Guns is a 2013 American buddy cop action comedy film directed by Baltasar Kormákur and starring Denzel Washington and Mark Wahlberg.[4] Based on the comic book series of the same name created by Steven Grant and Mateus Santolouco, published in 2007 by Boom! Studios. The film was released in the United States on August 2, 2013,[5] and was met with mixed reviews from critics.

Plot

Robert "Bobby" Trench and Michael "Stig" Stigman are questioned by the US Border Patrol after meeting with drug lord Manny "Papi" Greco in Mexico. Unknown to Stig, Bobby is undercover DEA agent Trench who reports to his superior, Jessup, he didn't get the cocaine from Papi they need to convict him.

Against orders, Bobby remains undercover to assist Stig in robbing $3 million - in a bank vault in Tres Cruces, Texas - to prosecute Papi for money laundering. Bobby then meets with fellow DEA agent and ex, Deb Rees, while Stig, an undercover Navy SEAL with ONI, meets with his commanding officer, LCDR Harold Quince, and is told to kill Bobby so they can fund covert operations.

Bobby and Stig are surprised to find $43.125 million and not $3 million. Stig follows orders to betray Bobby and escape with the money, pulling his gun as Bobby is about to pull his. He wounds Bobby in the upper arm rather than kill him, and then sees the DEA badge. Unsure what to think, he leaves him in the desert.

After debriefing, Quince orders his death. Stig escapes after learning the money will go to a Navy base in Corpus Christi. Meanwhile, a man named Earl aggressively interrogates the bank manager about the stolen money and the vet who treated Bobby's wound.

Bobby goes to Stig's to find the money, only to have him contact him from a sniper's post across the street. A hit squad sent by Quince attacks the apartment but Bobby and Stig escape. Bobby tries to tell Jessup what happened, but Earl and his men are already there. Earl kills Jessup, frames Bobby and lets him go, agreeing to clear his name if he recovers the $43 million.

Bobby and Stig kidnap Papi, interrogating him in Deb's garage. Earl is a black ops operative Papi reports to, and the money they stole was the CIA's payments. The agency has forced Papi, and other cartels, to pay a 7% cut in exchange for using CIA planes to smuggle product across the border. The garage is attacked by Quince's hit squad. Bobby, Stig, and Deb escape, as does Papi, who calls his crew. All three are captured by Papi, and taken to his farm in Mexico. After a beating and a visit from Earl, Papi gives the men 24 hours to return the money, or Deb will die.

At the base, Bobby infiltrates Quince's office, discovering he is Deb's boyfriend, and they had planned to steal the money for themselves. Meanwhile, Stig asks Admiral Tuwey for help. He orders Quince's arrest, but disavows Stig to protect the Navy's reputation. Both Quince and Stig evade arrest. Unable to find the money in time, Papi kills Deb. Bobby later realizes the money is in a motel room he and Deb frequented and goes to help Stig, who had returned to Papi's farm for vengeance.

There, Stig is surrounded by Papi's men, then both Quince and Earl intervene. Bobby arrives in a car filled with money, blows it up, scattering the money everywhere, leading to a massive shootout. During a standoff, Earl reveals that the CIA has 20 other secret banks, and the loss of the $43.125 million is only a minor setback. Signaling Stig with a phrase from an earlier conversation, Stig shoots Earl, and Bobby shoots Quince. Bobby and Stig kill Papi and the duo escape, but first Bobby shoots Stig in the leg as payback for shooting him in the desert. While planning to continue to take down the CIA's secret banks and sabotage their black operations, Bobby reveals to Stig that he did not blow up all the money and had some stashed away.

Cast

Production

The film is an adaption of the comic series of the same name by Steven Grant.[6] However, it has been noted by the Observer that it can also be seen as evocative of the 1973 thriller Charley Varrick.[7] The pictures have similar plots and in both cases the bank being robbed is in a town named Tres Cruces.

Filming took place in New Orleans, Louisiana and areas throughout New Mexico.[8] While filming in Louisiana, the production spent $57.5 million in the state and received a $17.6 million subsidy under the state's film incentive program.[9] 2 Guns marked the second collaboration for Wahlberg and Kormákur. They had first worked together on the film Contraband. It also marks the second collaboration between Washington and Patton after having starred together in Déjà Vu.

Reception

Critical response

On Rotten Tomatoes the film has an approval rating of 64% based on 187 reviews, with an average score of 6.02/10. The site's consensus reads, "Formulaic and often jarringly violent, 2 Guns rests its old-school appeal on the interplay between its charismatic, well-matched stars."[10] Metacritic gave a score of 55 out of 100 based on 43 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews".[11]

Ben Kenigsberg of The A.V. Club gave the film a C+ rating, describing it as "the no-frills action, half-pint Jim Thompson scenario, and buddy-cop wisecracks".[12] Peter Bradshaw of The Guardian gave the film 2 out of 5 stars.[13] R. Kurt Osenlund of Slant Magazine gave the film 2 out of 4 stars. "It's noticeably odd that 2 Guns has the desire to make offhanded socio-political statements, but not the will to take them anywhere truly provocative," he wrote.[14] Peter Travers of Rolling Stone also gave the film 2 out of 4 stars, commenting that the film didn't make the extra effort.[15] Lisa Kennedy of Denver Post gave the film 3 out of 4 stars, writing that "the biggest guns this action flick brandishes are stars Denzel Washington and Mark Wahlberg who have very different acting styles that work surprisingly well together".[16]

Box office

The film grossed $75,612,460 in North America and $56,327,951 in other countries, with a $131,940,411 worldwide gross against a budget of $61 million, having debuted at the top of the box office with $27,059,130 in its first weekend.[3]

See also

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m "2 Guns". American Film Institute. Retrieved October 28, 2016.
  2. ^ "2 GUNS (2013)". bbfc.co.uk. British Board of Film Classification. June 8, 2013. Archived from the original on August 31, 2013. Retrieved August 31, 2013.
  3. ^ a b c "2 Guns (2013)". Box Office Mojo. Internet Movie Database. Retrieved December 11, 2013.
  4. ^ "Production notes" (PDF). 2guns.net. Universal Studios. Archived from the original (PDF) on August 9, 2013. Retrieved August 3, 2013.
  5. ^ "Kick-Ass 2, 2 Guns Get New Release Dates; R.I.P.D. Holds Firm in 3D". ComicBook.com. Retrieved March 26, 2013.
  6. ^ "Fred Ward Joins Denzel Washington And Mark Walhberg In 2 Guns". CinemaBlend.com. Retrieved October 23, 2012.
  7. ^ French, Philip (August 18, 2013). "2 Guns – review". The Observer. Retrieved August 29, 2013.
  8. ^ "'2 Guns', starring Mark Wahlberg, filming in New Mexico". Onlocationvacations.com. Retrieved October 23, 2012.
  9. ^ "2013 Feature Film Production Report". FilmL.A. March 6, 2013. Archived from the original on October 20, 2016. Retrieved August 9, 2016.
  10. ^ "2 Guns". Rotten Tomatoes. Retrieved August 28, 2020.
  11. ^ "2 Guns". Metacritic. Retrieved July 16, 2020.
  12. ^ Kenigsberg, Ben (August 1, 2013). "2 Guns - Film - Movie Review". The A.V. Club.
  13. ^ Bradshaw, Peter (August 15, 2013). "2 Guns - review". The Guardian.
  14. ^ Osenlund, R. Kurt (July 31, 2013). "2 Guns - Film Review". Slant Magazine.
  15. ^ Travers, Peter (August 1, 2013). "2 Guns". Rolling Stone.
  16. ^ Kennedy, Lisa (August 2, 2013). ""2 Guns" movie review: Denzel Washington and Mark Wahlberg are a new breed of buddy cops". The Denver Post.
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