2 Guns

I love a good crime thriller. Don't you? You can decide how dark one should be, how action-packed, even how funny it is. Maybe all of the above even. If there was ever a decade that helped put the crime thriller on the map, it was the 1970s. Watching 2013's 2 Guns -- which I liked a lot -- I felt almost like it was a tribute film, a buddy crime thriller reminiscent of so many good 1970s thrillers.

Low-level criminals Bobby Beans (Denzel Washington) and Michael 'Stig' Stigman (Mark Wahlberg) have been working together, providing odds and ends for a drug cartel for almost a year now. When a deal with cartel kingpin Papi Greco (Edward James Olmos) doesn't go quite as planned, Bobby goes along with Stig's plan that he's been brewing about for months. Greco keeps a ridiculous amount of money as the Tres Cruces bank, somewhere around $3 million. Bobby and Stig are both keeping a secret from each other though, Bobby an undercover D.E.A. agent, Stig an undercover agent with Navy Intelligence. With backing from their supervisors, they pull off the robbery but get far more than they expected. Someone is setting them up. There isn't $3 million in the bank, and it doesn't belong to Greco. There's $43 million, and its powerful owner (Bill Paxton) wants it back at all costs.

It was hard not to like this movie. From director Baltasar Kormakur (who worked with Wahlberg on Contraband), 'Guns' is based off a graphic novel of the same name. It received mixed reviews last summer, but audiences seemed to like it, piling up a $131 million box office. The appeal is obvious, a buddy flick along the U.S./Mexico border with drug cartels, shootouts, corrupt government agencies, some cool car chases, and two very likable leads. Watching the DVD special features, writer Blake Masters clearly is a fan of the genre, mentioning Sam Peckinpah and Butch and Sundance as influences. The graphic novel author, Steven Grant, is the same way, a huge fan of where this genre has come from. Above all else, this is a really fun movie. It's content to be fun too, and there's absolutely nothing wrong with that.

Before I figured out what the story was about, my initial reaction was.....come on, do I really need to spell it out? It's Denzel Washington and Mark Wahlberg, two of my favorite actors, working together!! How can that go wrong? I submit that IT CANNOT. That's the beauty of films like this. You get two or three or four actors/actresses, hand them a script and let them go. These are fun parts that Washington and Wahlberg clearly had some fun bringing to life. Buddy/road movies like this have a perfection in following their formula. Two guys working together, not quite trusting each other but they don't have any other options, and everyone is against them. Their personalities are different -- Bobby quieter, smooth and charming, Stig a motor-mouthed, likable tough guy -- but really? They're not so different. Similar backgrounds, similar loyalties when it comes to getting the job done.

It doesn't hurt that both Washington and Wahlberg are two very likable actors on-screen. Nowhere is that more evident than their dialogue together. These are fast-paced, lightning-quick delivered scenes that certainly reflect two guys who've spent too much time together doing shady deals for drug cartels. The opening scene has Stig in a diner trying to order breakfast for Bobby, Bobby correcting everything that's said and then arguing about why the other one was so very wrong. It's a formula that's used a handful of times in some contagiously funny scenes, Stig trying to convince Bobby that they're actually friends, Bobby stubborn as ever in opening up some. Just a fun to watch and listen to chemistry that gives a humorous edge to the crime aspect of the story.

As for the rest of the cast, they're there to keep us guessing. Who's good? Who's bad? Who's got some tricks up their sleeve? Olmos is having some fun as Papi Greco, smooth and slimy, always ready to turn on anyone for a payday. Paula Patton gets the eye candy role (the topless eye candy, very essential to the story) as Deb, Bobby's quasi-girlfriend and contact officer within the D.E.A., Robert John Burke as Jessup, their commanding officer. Paxton gets to ham it up as Earl, the man who wants his money back, greasy hair, thin mustache and quirky to a T. James Marsden is good too as Quince, Stig's commanding officer within Navy Intelligence trying to put together a hugely successful case. Even Fred Ward makes a quick appearance as a Navy Admiral who may be able to help Stig. Definitely some fun, cool parts.

I just liked this movie, plain and simple. It reminded me of everything from Charley Varrick (robbing mafia money) to The Outfit (low level hoods) to Bring Me the Head of Alfredo Garcia (the border setting). There is absolutely nothing wrong with a movie wanting to be entertaining with absolutely no other intentions. By the time the story builds to a showdown at Greco's Mexican villa, it's just too perfect. About 28 different sides in a glorious shootout with a whole lot of money on the line. It's hard not to like movies about this. A buddy/road movie with tones of film noir, 1970s crime thrillers and that oh so perfect pulpy feel, how can you lose?

2 Guns (2013): ***/****

30 Minutes or Less

I've made no bones about my general dislike for actor Jesse Eisenberg. I feel like he plays the same character in one movie after another; a smarmy, sarcastic and whiny individual who just doesn't know when to shut up. Thankfully, it hasn't ruined a movie yet, and there's been some good ones from Adventureland to The Social Network to Zombieland. How about 2011's 30 Minutes or Less? The jury is still out.

A pizza delivery man in his mid-20s, Nick (Eisenberg) has hit a bit of a rough spot. For one, he's a pizza delivery guy, his quasi-girlfriend is moving to Atlanta, and he's gotten into a friendship-ending fight with his longtime buddy and roommate, Chet (Aziz Ansari). Well, it's about to get worse. Delivering a pizza before closing, he's kidnapped and knocked out by two D-list crooks (Danny McBride and Nick Swardson), waking up the next morning with a bomb strapped to his chest. The crooks are cash-strapped and have a plan in mind for some money...have Nick rob a bank for them. He's got about 10 hours to rob one of the banks in town and bring $100,000 back to them. If he doesn't go along with it or contacts the police? They'll blow him up with a remote detonator. The clock is ticking so Nick sees if Chet can somehow help him.

Now, I have a sick, pretty dark sense of humor. I can laugh at some really wrong, uncomfortable things. Okay, I have some limits. This comedy from director Ruben Fleischer is based on a true story with one major difference. In real life, a pizza delivery guy was killed when crooks strapped a bomb to him, the bomb exploding before he could figure out how to remove the bomb. Read about it HERE. If you can get past that issue, you'll probably enjoy this movie. I think I did. I'm not sure. Parts are really funny, making the most out of a genuinely uncomfortable situation. 'Minutes' is a good mix of thrills and laughs -- however bizarre -- with an oddball mix of a cast. You just have to get past that nasty based on a true story part.

Brace yourself. I liked Jesse Eisenberg in this one. It just took a bomb being strapped to his body for it to happen. He starts off as his smarmy self with passive aggressive one-liners, but once he's kidnapped there's some frenetic energy on display so we get to see a different side of Eisenberg. I guess I'd have some frenetic energy too with a bomb attached to my body too. Aiding the cause is the bizarre, off the wall, Odd Couple friendship between Eisenberg's Nick and Ansari's Chet. As he's shown in his comedy shows and Parks and Recreation, Ansari has a perfect ability to ad-lib and improvise at will. It's almost bizarre in its delivery, whether its his underplayed lines or the complete opposite with his freaking out, "My friend has a bomb strapped to him!" mentality. Of course, it's ridiculous because most of the time he's far too calm, but that's part of all the fun.

A couple scenes especially stand out. Following their fight, Chet struggles with what to do. A substitute teacher at a grammar school, Chet understandably LOSES IT when a bombed-up Nick walks in. His best line comes though when he finally decides to help, deciding that if he didn't he'd one day lose it while he's hanging out with his future wife and kids. "I shouldn't have let my friend explode." Deadpan perfect. The other has Chet spray painting plastic guns, singing a little song about what will happen if he didn't spray paint the guns. It's those little moments -- almost entirely from Ansari -- that produce the biggest laughs.

The rest of the cast is decent if nothing crazy. McBride seems to inspire love or hate among viewers, nothing in between. His generally filthy, similarly deadpan deliveries work for me, and I like him so as long as you know what his Dwayne character is going to be like, you'll be fine. Like Eisenberg and Ansari, McBride and Swardson have a good chemistry. The visual of the duo wearing gorilla/monkey masks while spouting their plan is pretty funny as well. Also look for Fred Ward as Dwayne's lottery-winning father, Michael Pena as a Detroit hitman brought into the mix, Dilshad Vadsaria as Chet's twin sister, Kate, and Bianca Kajilich as a stripper Dwayne meets and unknowingly puts the whole plan into motion. And yes, she's topless so there's that.    

Know what you're getting here. The humor is anywhere from stupid to sexual to violent and sometimes combinations of those three. It's only 83 minutes long so if you hate it, so be it, it's not even an hour and a half long. I didn't love it, but there's enough to recommend.

30 Minutes or Less (2011): ** 1/2 /****