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-

Date Night (2010)

In “Date Night,” Tina Fey and Steve Carell play wife and husband, Realtor and accountant, and parents. Tired, rushed and dull, and from suburban Jersey. They are the nameless, voiceless extras you see in the far background of spy thrillers about exotic couples. But in this film, on their one night out to New York, Claire and Phil are the stars. Mistaken for blackmailers at a snobby Tribeca restaurant, Claire and Phil find themselves face-to-gun barrel over a stolen jump drive, and must run from potential killers (Common and Jimmi Simpson). So off they go, across NYC on the run. The great kick of this comedy is that the couple is absolutely out of their element the entire film, freaked by guns and reeking pay phones and car chases. Fey and Carell never lose sight of their characters’ normalcy, and that’s what makes them special. Various cameos pepper the film: Ray Liotta, James Franco, Mila Kunis, Mark Ruffalo, Kristen Wiig, etc., with Mark Wahlberg providing deadpan comedy gold as a shirtless James Bond hunk that normally would have the starring role. A-

The Fighter and Animal Kingdom (2010)

I just watched two films that show the far-end extreme of warped close-knit families -- people related by blood, birth and marriage, but who mix like gasoline and matches. Yet they abide by each other. Both shock with volatile material, especially with the mothers on display. Gems? No. These are jagged, precious chunks of broken glass that cut deep. One more than the other.

Among boxing films there is “Raging Bull” and “Rocky” and everything else. “The Fighter” doesn’t reach those levels, but it stays in the ring. Few boxing flicks even try. This is a true story, where the underdog boxer hero has to overcome Job-worthy troubles to win the belt. And you know how that turns out, right?

Mark Wahlberg -– built, tough and coolly in control -– is Micky Ward, a street worker who can’t see his boxing dream amid all the empty factories of his dead New England town. Micky’s deepest battles aren’t in the boxing ring, but at home. His former-boxer brother (Christian Bale) is a crack addict, his mother (Melissa Leo) is a tyrant who can’t disapprove of Dicky and all his druggy shtick.

It’s a gripping ride. The Ward family –- including seven freakish sisters -– can be harsh to watch, but is endlessly fascinating. (This despite the fugly sisters falling into mimicry.) The boxing scenes have -- bad pun -- punch. It’s also a darkly funny. Dicky has a repeated gag where he jumps out a crack house second-story window. It’s pathetic and induces laughter. But when mom catches him, it’s heart-breaking. Truly hilarious: A scene where Micky and his girlfriend (Amy Adams) rip snobby films. Ironic as “Fighter” will win several Oscars. Bale and Leo outlast every round against a top-of-their-game cast. A-

“Animal Kingdom” is the movie “The Town” wanted to be, before it went soft with sentimentality and unearned romance. “Animal” rages and gets darker and scarier, and sadder, too, as its minutes tick by. It’s 2010’s only crime film that can be held up as near flawless.

The film opens with a Melbourne teen (James Frecheville) sitting on a couch, watching TV. The viewer only thinks mom next to him is asleep. But she’s dead. Heroin. That’s before the credit role. J –- his nickname –- then has to reintroduce himself to grandmom (Jacki Weaver), and so he goes to live with her and his gang of uncles. They are a literal gang: Bank robbers, drug dealers and killers. The most dangerous of the uncles is “Pope” (Ben Mendelsohn), a fiercely quiet man who could hug or kill with equal aplomb, depending on the mood.

Written and directed by David Michôd, “Kingdom” follows J as he deals with this lot, who to trust and who to flee from, and not at all aware of who really is the largest monster in his life. Guy Pearce (“Memento”) is a cop who tries to pull J out of the lion’s den. There always is a cat-and-mouse game.

Nothing is amped up. No fancy edits. No exploding armored truck or hot air balloon chase. It’s emotion and body language, and double-edge words. It’s topped with scenes that smacked me in the skull even as I saw where the action was going a beat or two before. As the grandmom, Weaver is crazy good, all kisses and hugs and cookies … but oh so not. The music score -– tense as hell -– makes the film. Wild fact: Similar to “Fighter,” this is based on a true story. A

Max Payne (2008)

"Max Payne" is a paint-by-numbers shoot 'em up about a cop gunning for the criminals who killed his family years before. Scowling and scowling some more, a scowling Mark Wahlberg plays the title character who finds himself involved in a giant conspiracy typical of bad shoot 'em up films. I guessed the villain just by looking at the credits and thinking of one person, "What's he doing here?" The direction by John Moore is over-the-top and flat-out dumb. In one scene, a hooker covers herself with a sheet -- before offering herself sexually to Max. Huh? Oh, the PG-13 rating. Riiight. Nearly every gun battle is shot in slow-mo, the badge of honor for any director who can't stage action. Wahlberg, better than this, could have been replaced by the wooden duck my father gave me when I was 1. It's all based on a video game, the first hint this is junk. C-

We Own the Night (2007)

"We Own the Night" is a strange beast. It follows two brothers, Bobby (Joaquin Phoenix) and Joseph (Mark Wahlberg), on opposite sides of the law in 1980s New York City. Bobby does drugs and works for Russian gangsters as a nightclub manager. Joseph is married, a father and New York vice cop, just like dad (Robert Duvall). Joe and dad fight for Bobby (who even has ditched his surname) to go blue, but he relents, and resents family and God. I knew exactly where the film was headed, but its journey and surprises along the way to that predetermined destination had me riveted. Chart this to the strong, bloody and honest script and direction by James Gray, who seems to know a lot about the turmoil between fathers and sons, and the acting.

Wahberg has never been better, and Phoenix is excellent as always, a true character actor who wouldn't be caught dead in "Transformers 6." Duvall has more energy here than he has had in a decade. When the three of these men are together, it feels like family, not like three guys showing up on a set pretending to love (hate) each other. The violence is relentless, and a car chase during a rain storm in the middle of the film ranks high as one of cinema's best. This film feels real with its locations, music and the depiction of the always stunning cult-like loyalty that cops have for one another. This is epic, mingling biblical and Shakespearean tales, into a small crime/family story, and it improves on repeat viewings. A-

The Happening (2008)

"The Happening" is another toneless dud from M. Night Shyamalan, who made the brilliant "The Sixth Sense," the under-rated "Unbreakable" and then crashed, floundered, and sank respectively with "Signs," "The Village" and "Lady in the Water." Sold as old-school Hitchock horror, "Happening" follows a Philly science teacher (Mark Wahlberg) and his wife (Zooey Deschanel) as they flee from an unknown apocalyptic force rendering people suicidal. But it's really neither horrific nor suspenseful as Shyamalan fumbles much of the gore (a man feeding himself to lions at the Philly Zoo and another feeding himself to a lawn mower seem more Monty Python than Stephen King) while also revealing his mystery far too early. It's the wind. Wind! Leaves blowing! Ahhh! Boo. He kills every small morsel of grace with clunky stabs at comedy and two leads who seem bored, and why not when Whalberg plays better off a houseplant than his "wife." It's a weak liberal "message" film about the environment that would make Greenpeace turn red. "You deserve this!," a home realty sign screams as our heroes flee past it. Just in case you weren't paying attention. I see a dead career. D