2 Guns

Generally speaking, good guys are bad and bad guys are good in 2 Guns, but most often it’s hard to tell which is which.

Each of the two main characters in this crime thriller seems to blur the distinctions between partners and adversaries, perpetrators and victims, and heroes and villains.

In fact, just about everyone who wanders through this tale of greed and corruption straddles those same lines. Moviegoers aren’t always sure who to believe amid all the deception and double-crossing. That’s intentional, of course.

However, the twists that create those dynamics also wind up suffocating the film. After a while, the plot starts to feel mechanical and the revelations start to feel arbitrary, and any rooting interest is lost in the process.

Bobby (Denzel Washington) is an undercover drug enforcement agent while Stig (Mark Wahlberg) is an ex-Navy officer who each appear to have gone rogue. They team up to rob millions from a small-town bank, then start to question the other’s loyalty when the plan goes awry and it comes time to divide up the loot.

Naturally, there are other interested parties trying to claim the cash without much regard to how they obtain it. Among those with divided loyalties and ulterior motives are a Mexican drug lord (Edward James Olmos), a seductive DEA agent (Paula Patton), a slimy Navy official (James Marsden), and a ruthless CIA operative (Bill Paxton).

It’s whipped into a slick and stylish package by Icelandic director Baltasar Kormakur (Contraband), who stages a handful of exciting action sequences, including a cat-and-mouse car chase and fistfight involving Bobby and Stig in a desert.

Washington and Wahlberg generate an appealing mismatched chemistry as a pair of charismatic action heroes who always narrowly avoid trouble and make the most of the plentiful one-liners in the far-fetched script by rookie Blake Matthews, who adapted the screenplay from a graphic novel that feels as though it was run through a Hollywood blender on its way to the big screen.

On the surface, the film provides some lighthearted thrills with its fast-paced shootouts and amusing banter. Yet while it’s easily digestible, 2 Guns wallows in formula, right down to a contrived finale that showcases a true Mexican standoff, along with a title that really undersells its weapon count.

Rated R, 109 minutes.