2 Guns (2013)

“2 Guns” has Denzel Washington doing that cool swagger that he does and Mark Whalberg pelting out words like a machine gun, with Edward James Olmos and Bill Paxton as villains, one quiet and the other all show and tell. The quartet sell “Guns” well, because its plot is a mess that blows itself apart -– with a literal bang -- when our antiheroes storm a Navy base and firebomb an office building, and the act is never mentioned again. Post-9/11 that gag falls flat dead, no matter who’s selling. Washington and Wahlberg play undercover agents (DEA and Naval Intel) who are unaware of each other’s identity as they try to nab a drug lord (Olmos). When the duo pulls off a questionable bank robbery to take EJO’s $3 million fortune, they wind up taking $43 million. Why? Just because. Thusly, all hell (with Paxton as Satan) breaks loose. I like an overblown buddy flick, but “Guns” has its leads brag, “Bet you didn’t see that coming!,” on repeat before doing something I did see coming, because I saw “Lethal Weapon” and “ButchCassidy.” Two guns? Give us two new ideas. B-