Product description
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Whether you consider it a question or an answer, the
ironic title of this fast, funny and brutally beautiful buddy
thriller is both misleading and perfectly apt. There are way more
than two s in 2 s (don't even try to keep count), but the
only two that matter are Denzel Washington and Mark Wahlberg as
bromantic heroes who create enough chemistry to rival the
firepower that makes most everything in 2 s go bang. A wildly
convoluted plot is redeemed by masses of kinetic energy that come
in bursts like controlled automatic weapons fire and by a stream
of dialogue and patter that Washington and Wahlberg trade like
battling electric guitar riffs. They play Bobby and Stig, the
former an undercover DEA agent and the latter a Naval
Intelligence officer, who are both on the trail of a bloodthirsty
Mexican drug cartel kingpin named Papi (a coldly showy Edward
James Olmos). Neither one knows the other's true identity, and
they both think the other is simply going to end up as collateral
damage when the mission is complete. It's too bad they're in the
dark because they really seem to like each other, until they
start trying to kill each other, that is. It's boy meets boy, boy
loses boy, boy finds boys, boy lives happily ever after with boy,
all played by two boys who are dynamite personalities on their
own and pure magnetic charisma when they're together. The
catalyzing event around which the time-shifting movie is
thematically structured is a bank robbery in a small border town
that goes either horribly wrong or horribly right, depending on
any given character's point of view. In undercover mode and still
not aware that they're both good guys (although the movie's moral
takeaway about good and bad remains pretty muddy), Bobby and Stig
discover that the deposit boxes they've raided contain not $3
million, but $43 million. They thought they were ripping off Papi
in a caper that made sense for their criminal cover as well as
their professional assignment. But after their identities are
blown and an oily CIA psychopath named Earl (Bill Paxton,
delightfully chewing the scenery) enters the escapade, money,
motive, and morality become even more mixed up. Paula Patton as
Bobby's ex-lover and current DEA superior punches up the heat, as
does James Marsden as a crooked navy commander, and they both add
to the elaborate plot with more secrets and double-crosses. All
the complexity is tempered by good humor, bad behavior, and
enthusiastic acting in a hard-R mix of comedy and violence that's
anchored by the buddy connection so effortlessly hammered home by
Washington and Wahlberg. The director is Icelandic auteur
Baltasar Kormákur, who seems to be channeling Tony Scott in
setting a tone as well as following action with an assured grasp
on spatial logic and visual clarity. The result is a dynamic and
satisfying grownup movie that is sleek and stylish, with moments
of genuine emotion and dramatic gravity that permeate the savvy
comic overlay. This all could have turned out to be a cartoonish
affair, especially considering that the script is based on a
graphic novel. But the eye-candy appeal goes deeper than
explosions and slow-motion play, with responsibility amply
carried away by the two s who top the bill. --Ted Fry