2 Guns, based on graphic novels by Steven Grant - 8 out of 10

2 Guns, based on graphic novels by Steven Grant

8 out of 10

For those who love the genre, action, gun fights, incredible stories and conspiracies, this motion picture would probably be exactly what they need to spend an evening laughing, thrilled by the adventures of the 2 guns aka Bobby aka Bobby Balls aka Denzel Washington with his well-known charm, magnetism and conquering smile and Stig aka Mark Wahlberg.

The plot is as complicated as can be, indeed too much so for this cinephile, as it involves corrupt agents from the CIA, Mexican drug lords, shady police officers and…as if something were missing, even thieves with oak leaves from The US Navy itself, bent on stealing many millions of dollars, then trying to cover their tracks and eventually, recuperate the money that keep changing hands in the manner of a respectable thriller, which these days needs to have a plot that does not look like other features and thus more layers are added and this becomes a cliché in itself.

Very early on, we have Robert Trench, whose real identity we do not know yet, aka Denzel Washington and Michael Stigman planning a robbery of a bank, opposite the best doughnut outfit in the area, although the legend has it that one must not do that – perhaps because there is the theory that policemen eat doughnuts in immense quantities and therefore they must be parked often at the best eatery that sells them.

The two also meet with Papi Greco, a Mexican cartel boss with a penchant for massive bulls and the potential those have to multiply, but also be used in torturing his victims – which the two partners might become at one point – a monstrous individual who has at the moment when he talks with Bobby the head of a man who had allegedly cheated him stored in a bag, near Stig, who acts with what looks like stupid, reckless hostility towards the thugs that play the game of killing the chickens aiming at them with their guns, reminding one, because perhaps this is in reference to Pat Garrett & Billy the Kid.

This scene annoyed this viewer on two counts, first, the obvious one and this is where we can agree with Michael Stigman that this is a very disgusting endeavor, although his partner is also right when he asks what is he eating and the answer, chicken, speaks for itself, and the second would be that this looks preposterous, in that a serious character would not engage in the stark, exaggerated provocation, taking the pistols of the Mexicans to prove how good a shot he is and risking being killed on the spot with a machine gun, or eventually a bazooka.

These people are dead serious and one prove is what has happened recently, in real life, not on the big screen, when the Mexican authorities have arrested the son of the famous Guzman aka El Chapo- the one who has escaped twice from his cell, once through an infamous tunnel that went all the way between the shower and a safe area – and then had to release him (!), because with all the fire power of the state – granted, at the local level, they did not send in the Army, albeit one could wonder why, if they saw that they are outgunned – they could not face the men and the artillery sent in by the cartel!

But hey, this is fiction – one could add of doubtful quality, or at least lacking badly in credibility – and if the super hero feels he can face the troops of the cartel, why not pretend that this could happen and he can start shooting off at the ranch of a fearsome, smaller and fictional Guzman…

When the 2 guns rob the bank, one wearing a Frankenstein and the other a clown or Joker mask, they find that the expected two or three million held there by Papi Greco have in fact multiplied to the point where they see this is much more, but have no idea to what tune, until they would be counted and we see that this $ 43.120 or thereabouts, but they do not belong to the drug lord, but to some vicious agents, or perhaps to the CIA itself, for the conspiracy theory proposed in the film is that the agency takes a cut from the operations of the cartels, including of Greco, which have to pay about 7% and then they are allowed to continue and are even given plans to smuggle their cocaine.

The 2 guns come to a confrontation, Stig finds that his former partner is an agent, not knowing if he is corrupt or not, then the money lands with some officers from the US Navy, who had told the rather ignorant, if boastful Michael Stigman that they would use in decent, clean scope, only to come to another conflict, this time over the fact that the DEA agent should have been killed, and when they get into the wild, to find and execute him, the unpredictable (if we have not seen this sort of film before) happens and everybody seems to be chasing everyone else…

To complicate matters even further – perhaps to the point where this is getting too much for some viewers…this one does not entertain conspiracy theories as a rule, never mind when so many outfits are involved that you start wondering who is not in on this…just like the jokes they make on Late Night Shows about idiot Trump and his ‘perfect Ukraine call’…the news would soon be like: Uruguay and Ghana have not been asked to find dirt on Joe Biden – the CIA comes in, in the form of Earl aka the late, regretted, wonderful Bill Paxton.

The 43 million and the odd hundred thousand dollars have been deposited by the CIA – which has stashes in many places they allege in the film – even if the message must, probably should be that some corrupt humans working for it took advantage and did as they liked – in the manner in which the American president has decided to hold on to over four hundred million, approved by Congress, destined for the defense of the Ukraine, trying to keep Russia and the friend of ‘crooked’ Trump, Putin, away, just because he wanted to use extortion and get some personal favors for him…

Ï want you to do us a favor though…”

In conclusion, this motion picture is not one of the best, in spite of some merits and the fact that one could be caught in all that action and the complicated web of people, agencies, and drug lords involved.