2 Guns
Universal Pictures | Release Date: August 2, 2013 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
55
METASCORE
Mixed or average reviews based on 43 Critic Reviews
Positive:
19
Mixed:
21
Negative:
3
Watch Now
Stream On
Stream On
Buy on
Stream On
Stream On
Stream On
Expand

Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
83
Tampa Bay TimesSteve PersallJul 31, 2013
2 Guns is a movie based on smart callbacks and sly flip-flops of loyalty, regularly interrupted by spasms of well-staged violence. Read full review
83
Entertainment WeeklyChris NashawatyJul 31, 2013
2 Guns is a much-needed reminder that the best summer surprises can come when you least expect them. Read full review
80
The TelegraphRobbie CollinAug 15, 2013
Could this be the late-emerging hit movie of summer 2013? No chance, although if this was August 1987, a time when we allowed action films to be smart on their own dumb terms, it might have cleaned up. Read full review
80
New York Magazine (Vulture)Bilge EbiriAug 1, 2013
For a movie with so many twists in it, 2 Guns never really jerks us around. This is what some summer movies should be like — clever in a stupid way, and stupid in a clever way. Read full review
80
New York Daily NewsJoe NeumaierJul 31, 2013
Pure charisma is sometimes the best special effect. That’s what Denzel Washington and Mark Wahlberg bring to 2 Guns, and after a season full of superhero duds, they deliver a crucial dose of cool. Read full review
79
Film.comWilliam GossAug 1, 2013
In a season stuffed with empty eye candy, 2 Guns comes along as something of a welcome burrito — plenty satisfying and hardly nutritious. Read full review
75
Chicago Sun-TimesRichard RoeperAug 5, 2013
With a sharp and funny if sometimes convoluted script by Blake Masters and slick, pulpy direction from Baltasar Kormakur, and of course that first-rate cast, 2 Guns rises above standard action fare. Read full review
75
RogerEbert.comOdie HendersonAug 2, 2013
You've seen all this before, and many times. 2 Guns works because it's essentially several riffs on familiar material. Cliché is not a bad thing if it's done right. Read full review
75
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Adam NaymanAug 1, 2013
Wahlberg, whose dim-bulb act was over-exposed in Pain and Gain, fares better here in a more heroic role. Stig is a hothead and a narcissist, but he’s also just a little bit smarter than he looks. The same goes for 2 Guns as a whole. Read full review
75
Charlotte ObserverLawrence ToppmanAug 1, 2013
The director mixes the colors of his palette carefully. He uses (but never overuses) slow-motion, aerial shots, extreme close-ups and quick cuts, avoiding any self-consciously “stylish” display. He varies the pace of scenes and the angle of shots enough to keep the movie flowing, but we never feel we’re watching someone show us how clever he is. Read full review
75
ReelViewsJames BerardinelliAug 1, 2013
The movie is loud, fun, quick moving, and features some nice acting turns. Read full review
70
The New York TimesManohla DargisAug 1, 2013
Mr. Kormakur sets and keeps up a fast rather than frantic pace that never runs the movie off the rails even when the story nearly does. Read full review
70
SalonAndrew O'HehirAug 1, 2013
2 Guns is both enjoyable trash and a fascinating snapshot of Hollywood’s current mentality when it comes to the United States government. Read full review
70
The DissolveKeith PhippsAug 1, 2013
Kormákur lets his stars balance the buddy-movie levity with just enough dramatic weight to keep it grounded, and his directing style seems like a conscious corrective to the disorienting cutting and obvious CGI effects that have come to dominate Hollywood action films. Read full review
70
The Hollywood ReporterJohn DeForeJul 30, 2013
The picture survives its excesses thanks to winning chemistry between stars Denzel Washington and Mark Wahlberg, who animate banter-heavy dialogue and click so well one wonders why they haven't shared the screen before. Read full review
70
VarietyScott FoundasJul 30, 2013
Kormakur shows he knows his way around an action movie better than most, keeping the pace quick, the banter lively and the old-school, mostly CGI-free thrills delivering right on schedule. Read full review
67
Austin ChronicleMarjorie BaumgartenJul 31, 2013
Maybe it’s just an expression of relief after a summer of superheroes and fantasy scenarios, but 2 Guns is a refreshing blast. Read full review
63
Philadelphia InquirerSteven ReaAug 1, 2013
With border crossings and familiar buddy-cop movie tropes (think Lethal Weapon, think 48 HRS, think The Heat), the Wahlberg-Washington express hits lots of comfortably familiar notes. And more than a few viciously uncomfortable ones, too. Read full review
63
Chicago TribuneMichael PhillipsAug 1, 2013
The actors — including Patton as Bobby's DEA colleague and sometime fling — cannot act what is not there. But with Washington, Wahlberg, Olmos and Paxton around jockeying for dominance, the standoffs have their moments. Read full review
60
EmpireNeil AlcockAug 27, 2013
This does a serviceable job homaging '80s actioners but not a whole lot more. Go for the explosions, zone out for the plot. Read full review
60
Total FilmNeil SmithAug 24, 2013
Washington and Wahlberg are an effective double act in an intermittently exciting thriller with more twists than it needs. We’d love to see them partnered again, though perhaps as characters. Read full review
60
Arizona RepublicBill GoodykoontzAug 1, 2013
Wahlberg and Washington are so good together, quips flying as fast as lead, that much is forgiven. Read full review
58
Christian Science MonitorPeter RainerAug 2, 2013
It’s essentially a buddy-cop romp with the usual assortment pack of graphic gruesomeness. Read full review
58
The A.V. ClubBen KenigsbergJul 31, 2013
As in "Contraband," Kormákur offers a hint of a political statement, in this case about the inherent potential for corruption whenever competing government agencies are operating in international territory. But it doesn’t quite make it. On almost every level, 2 Guns is content to be as flavorless and forgettable as its title. Read full review
50
NPRMark JenkinsAug 2, 2013
Hypermacho but tongue-in-cheek, the first 20 minutes of 2 Guns are enormous fun. Read full review
50
USA TodayClaudia PuigAug 1, 2013
By its conclusion the story has worked so hard to be twisting and clever that it runs out of steam and becomes outlandish, marked by a surplus of violence — too often casual and gratuitous — for what essentially is a buddy cop movie. Read full review
50
Boston GlobeTy BurrAug 1, 2013
The movie has style but increasingly little sense. Read full review
50
St. Louis Post-DispatchJoe WilliamsAug 1, 2013
Savvy filmgoers will know they are getting a stale product as soon as they see the wrapper: one of those vintage muscle cars that screams “stakeout.” Read full review
50
Miami HeraldRene RodriguezAug 1, 2013
The phrase “casting is everything” has never felt truer than it does with 2 Guns, an unremarkable, standard-issue shoot-em-up that rests entirely on the charisma of its two stars. Read full review
50
Rolling StonePeter TraversAug 1, 2013
Hell, I really meant to at least like 2 Guns. But I couldn't. The movie just didn't make the extra effort. Read full review
50
Slant MagazineR. Kurt OsenlundJul 31, 2013
Viewer/character solidarity only holds up for so long, and the film falls hard into twisty, nonsense territory, skipping over its stronger themes in the process. Read full review
50
Village VoiceStephanie ZacharekJul 30, 2013
This is a here today, gone tomorrow trifle, albeit one with lots of gunplay. In midsummer, that may be enough, but it's still a shame that 2 Guns shoots so many blanks. Read full review
42
The PlaylistGabe ToroJul 31, 2013
There’s nothing about 2 Guns that doesn’t feel prefab, like someone poured a packet of Insta-Movie into a glass of water. Read full review
40
The GuardianPeter BradshawAug 27, 2013
There is a fair amount of not sufficiently witty or lovable banter, and Paula Patton gets to play Katharine Ross to their Butch and Sundance. She really has nothing to do except pose fetchingly in her underwear. Not much firepower. Read full review
40
Time Out LondonTrevor JohnstonAug 13, 2013
Complications escalate to a tiresome degree, leeching the fun from the movie, which is slung together with cold competence (and not much more) by jobbing Icelandic maverick Baltasar Kormákur. Read full review
40
New Orleans Times-PicayuneMike ScottAug 2, 2013
While Washington and Wahlberg help make sure the flawed 2 Guns isn't too bad, it's hard not to think that it could have been better. Read full review
40
Wall Street JournalJoe MorgensternAug 1, 2013
When does banter turn to blather? In the case of this action adventure, which was directed by Baltasar Kormákur, it's when you realize that keeping track of the barely fathomable plot isn't worth the bother. Read full review
40
Los Angeles TimesKenneth TuranAug 1, 2013
Though individual set pieces are well done, the film inevitably leaves an empty taste behind it once it's done. Read full review
40
TimeMary PolsAug 1, 2013
They’re cute together, these two big stars, but the film around them, a sort of Tarantino lite, is desperately empty. Read full review
40
Time OutKeith UhlichJul 30, 2013
2 Guns quickly degenerates into boilerplate Hollywood sound and fury, complete with a climactic Mexican standoff that revolves around a massive, burning pile of money. Irony, thou art lost. Read full review
38
New York PostKyle SmithAug 1, 2013
Not every movie can come from the heart: This one is from the crotch. But what’s left for the sequel? Maybe it’ll feature Mark and Denzel sporting matching leather codpieces or giving each other bikini waxes. We can only hope. Read full review
37
Washington PostAnn HornadayAug 1, 2013
2 Guns feels like it’s all been done before, whether by John Woo, Michael Bay or any number of their CGI-happy clones. Read full review
25
San Francisco ChronicleMick LaSalleAug 1, 2013
It's a complete mess, the spectacle of filmmakers blowing up their movie and everything in it, because they can't think of anything else to do. Read full review
More From This Movie

55 Critic Reviews

6.6 User Reviews

Details & Credits|Trailers

Current Movie Releases
By MetascoreBy User Score
1 78 John Wick: Chapter 4
2 73 Creed III
3 70 Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among...
4 67 Avatar: The Way of Water
5 63 Knock at the Cabin
SEE ALL
Essential Links
New on Amazon Prime Video
New on Netflix
Coming Soon to DVD/Blu-ray
SEE ALL