Product description
-------------------
2 s(Br+Dv+Uv)
.com
----
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