The Big Picture

• Denzel Washington & Mark Wahlberg star in 2 Guns as undercover agents involved in a complex crime storyline.
• The movie deviates from the original comic book with changes in characters and plot.
• Despite a comic book sequel, 3 Guns, it failed to match the original's success and was not adapted into a movie.

Did you know that Denzel Washington and Mark Wahlberg made a buddy action dark comedy together? If that sounds like quite a mouthful, it's because it is. 2 Guns follows two hardened criminals as they get mixed up with the wrong crowd on the U.S.-Mexico border. There, they're pulled into a web of conspiracies that threaten to ruin their lives and careers as they have to decide who they can trust. Believe it or not, this movie is actually based on a 2007 comic book of the same name penned by Steven Grant, though this one isn't your traditional comic book movie with capes, tights, and superpowers.

What Is '2 Guns' About?

2 Guns centers on Denzel Washington's Bobby Trench, known by his criminal alias Bobby Beans, as he goes undercover for the Drug Enforcement Administration only to find himself working with squeaky-clean criminal Michael "Stig" Stigman (Mark Wahlberg). But it turns out, Stig just so happens to be a U.S. Navy SEAL Officer himself, also deep undercover. Neither "criminal" knows that the other is law enforcement, and things get even stickier when they decide to rob a bank together in Tres Cruces, Texas to steal the money out from under drug lord Manny "Papi" Greco (played by Battlestar Galactica legend Edward James Olmos). Only, it's not Papi's money that is held up in the bank, and that's where the real fun begins.

What they thought was Papi's goons depositing large sums of cash into the bank was actually Papi paying off the CIA with a cut of his profits (equaling a total of $43 million), which allowed him to remain in control of his operation. Not only are Bobby and Stig hunted down by Papi's men, but they're also pursued by the CIA and Stig's former Commander Harold Quince (James Marsden), who, as it turns out, had them steal the cash to make a quick payday of his own. Caught between the cartel, the CIA (with Bill Paxton as their primary adversary), and the Navy, Bobby, and Stig form an uneasy alliance to get themselves out of this mess, and hilarity (and plenty of violence) ensues.

But Bobby and Stig aren't the only two caught in the middle of this turf war. Paula Patton also stars as Bobby's DEA partner and Quince's co-conspirator Deb Rees, who at first plays Bobby only to eventually aid him. We won't spoil any more here, because, well, the climactic finale is worth watching all on its own, but let's just say that 2 Guns isn't precious about any of its cast members.

The '2 Guns' Duo Makes This Action Comedy Work

Playing a cross between his Training Day and Déjà Vu characters here, Denzel Washington excels as he always does, and his chemistry with Mark Wahlberg is off the charts. Frankly, it's surprising that nobody has attempted another buddy feature with these two. While 2 Guns isn't a masterpiece by any stretch, the witty back-and-forth between its leads (which feels right out of the original comic) is what makes this particular story worth telling. Of course, there are some fun twists and turns in this narrative, too, but the buddy dramedy between Bobby and Stig, who have very differing opinions about what it means to be somebody's "people," is what fuels this picture.

Somehow, Washington balances the tortured cop archetype with the easygoing criminal vibe that so naturally fits this film. Sure, Mark Wahlberg plays just another Wahlberg-ish character here who thrives in the action comedy sphere, but with Washington's Bobby Beans at his side, it doesn't feel forced or stale. "The biggest guns this action flick brandishes are stars Denzel Washington and Mark Wahlberg who have very different acting styles that work surprisingly well together," wrote Lisa Kennedy of The Denver Post, and that couldn't be a more on-point description.

Of course, Wahlberg had previously worked with director Baltasar Kormákur in 2012's Contraband, which established a firm on-screen shorthand between the two, and Washington and Patton had both played lovers in the aforementioned Déjà Vu (a highly underrated entry in Washington's filmography). Thus, 2 Guns reunited some players who have proven to thrive together previously for another solid entry that tackles similar ideas with a unique comedic twist. No, 2 Guns isn't a straight-up comedy, but there are dark comedy elements at play here that keep the ball rolling and best highlight the unique bond between these two lawmen-turned-criminals.

How Different Is '2 Guns' From the Comic Book?

As for the comic book that inspired the film, well, there were some major liberties taken between Boom! Studios' initial graphic novel and the Universal Pictures production. For starters, in the comic, Michael Stigman is actually Marcus Steadman, and the pair are practically alone throughout the entire events of the story. While Deb is involved in the conspiracy in the movie, she's a much bigger part of it in the graphic novel, where her connections to Steadman's boss are much deeper and her betrayal is felt with a real sting that is somewhat lacking in the motion picture.

Of course, Bobby doesn't look like Denzel Washington in the comics either, and instead has long, sandy blonde hair and a matching goatee. Papi's role is very similar in the graphic novel, though he doesn't make it to the third act, and the CIA agents are far less villainous in the book than they are in the movie. Changes like these are understandable. After all, an action movie like 2 Guns needs a powerful and climactic third act to build toward, even if the source material doesn't end the same way.

Overall, original comic book writer Steven Grant was pleased with how the feature film turned out. "Without slavishly trying to duplicate the book, something I’m glad of because when you’re working in different media you should take advantage of the distinct possibilities of each medium, they got the story and what I was up to, and they got my viewpoint, sense of humor and rhythms down cold," he told the New York Post in 2013. "It’s very much their film, but I can still spot my fingerprints all over it." While many comic book writers like Alan Moore and Frank Miller famously dislike how their stories have been adapted in live-action and animation, Grant was thrilled by how 2 Guns turned out, even if it feels like a different story at times. "I’d have loved it even if I’d had nothing to do with it," he said.

The '2 Guns' Comic Book Got a Sequel

While 2 Guns ends with Bobby and Stig casing out another bank to see if they can take down another drug lord on their own, the original comic book is a bit open-ended about whether Bobby and Steadman will continue on together. That is, until you get to 3 Guns, the continuation of the story set a while later (and with Emilio Laiso replacing Mateus Santolouco on art duties, which is admittedly a bit jarring at first). This story came out a year after the 2 Guns feature film hit theaters and was billed as a "comic book sequel to the hit feature film, starring Denzel Washington and Mark Wahlberg" despite actually being a continuation of the original graphic novel and not the movie.

Nevertheless, 3 Guns, which aims to be just as good as the original (even adding a Third Gun to the mix), fails to really take off. The conspiracy that Bobby and Steadman tackle here isn't as well-thought-out or well-planned as the previous adventure, and each issue seems to hit the same beat as the last. There are too many twists, too many betrayals, and not enough excitement given how great the first installment was. It's not a surprise that 3 Guns wasn't likewise adapted into a movie given the mixed reception to the original film, but if it had been, the script would be working from lesser material than before.

This isn't to say everything in 3 Guns is bad. It's still fun to see the two original leads working together again, and even the mystery behind their Third Gun is fun to unravel, but the comic suffers from a classic case of unnecessary sequel-itis. According to Steven Grant, there was initial interest in making a 2 Guns sequel, but eventually, that faded away after the dust settled. Thankfully, the folks behind 2 Guns the movie learned their lesson, and despite a decent gross at the box office, opted to leave Bobby and Stig in a better place where we can imagine what they might be up to next. Though who knows, now that Denzel Washington has done two Equalizer sequels, he could always revisit some of his other roles again in the future.

2 Guns is available to rent on Prime Video in the U.S.

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