The Buddy Cop film: Mismatched cops are paired together to stop a crime lord of some kind, they argue, banter, hate each other, find common ground over shared alcohol and eventually use their differences to work together, taking down the crime lord. It's a venerable genre that came into prominence in the 1980s. Some might argue that it peaked back then, too. Many movies have tried to recapture the magic of what came before, only to end up retreading over familiar ground. Every once and awhile, though, one slips through that shows us what we've been missing.
Bobby and Stig (Denzel Washington and Mark Wahlberg) are partners who freelance for Mexican crime boss Papi Greco (Edward James Olmos). When Papi welches on a deal, they decide to get back at him by stealing the $3 million he has stashed in a bank in a small Texas town. When they finally pull the job, they discover the amount to be closer to $43 million. They both realize that this is way more money than Papi should have.
As they decide what to do, Stig shoots Bobby in the arm, only to discover afterward that he's a DEA agent. Stig drives off with the cash, and takes it to his bosses at Naval Intelligence. Yep, they're both undercover cops, with no prior knowledge of either being such. They investigate who really owns the money, at first by themselves and then, once fate intervenes, together. Every answer they get just ends up leading to more questions, as well as some double and triple crosses.
"2 Guns" does the impossible, in a couple ways. First, it takes two actors you would never think to put together and creates undeniable chemistry between them. Their banter is fresh, funny and has a natural flow to it. You completely believe they're these characters that have a true love/hate relationship, not just two actors picking up a paycheck. Second, it takes a lot of those conventions of the genre I mentioned above, reworks and restructures them and puts the puzzle pieces together to make a picture that is completely different than the one on the box. The movie evokes the pioneers of its genre, such as "Beverly Hills Cop" and "Lethal Weapon."
"2 Guns" breathes new life into a dying genre by delivering a fun, yet gritty, action film.