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2 Guns
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Wikipedia article
{{Infobox film
| name = 2 Guns
| image = Two guns poster.jpg
| alt = 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.
| caption = Theatrical release poster
| director = Baltasar Kormkur
| producer =
| screenplay = Blake Masters
| based_on =
| starring =
| music = Clinton Shorter
| cinematography = Oliver Wood
| editing = Michael Tronick
| studio =
| distributor = Universal Pictures
| released =
| runtime = 109 minutes
| country = United States
| language = English
| budget = $61 million
| gross = $131.9 million
}}
'2 Guns' is a 2013 American buddy cop action comedy film directed by Baltasar Kormkur and starring Denzel Washington and Mark Wahlberg. It is 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, 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 an undercover DEA Special Agent who reports to his superior, Special Agent Jessup, that he did not 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 US Navy SEAL and Petty Officer 1st Class with the United States Navy Office of NavaI Intelligence, meets with his commanding officer, Lieutenant Commander 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. Stig wounds Bobby in the upper arm rather than kill him, and then sees Bobby's DEA badge. Unsure what to think, Stig leaves him in the desert.
After debriefing, Quince orders his death. Stig escapes after learning the money will go to the Naval Air Station 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 CIA Agent 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 products 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. Tuwey orders Quince's arrest but disavows Stig to protect the Navy's reputation. Both Quince and Stig evade arrest from US Navy Masters-at-Arms officers. Unable to find the money in time, Papi kills Deb. Bobby later realizes the money is in a motel room he and Deb had 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, and 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. However, it has been noted by 'the Observer' that it can also be seen as evocative of the 1973 thriller 'Charley Varrick'. 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. 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. '2 Guns' marked the second collaboration for Wahlberg and Kormkur. They had first worked together on the film 'Contraband' (2012). It also marks the second collaboration between Washington and Patton, who had starred together in 'Dj Vu' (2006).
Reception
Critical response
On Rotten Tomatoes, the film has an approval rating based on reviews, with an average score of . 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." Metacritic gave a score of 55 out of 100 based on 43 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews."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." Peter Bradshaw of 'The Guardian' gave the film 2 out of 5 stars. 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 sociopolitical statements, but not the will to take them anywhere truly provocative," he wrote.
Peter Travers of 'Rolling Stone' also gave the film 2 out of 4 stars, commenting that the film didn't make the extra effort.
Lisa Kennedy of 'The 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."
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.References
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