First, a note about the director, Baltasar Kormákur; he's a busy guy, very, and he's been so for a while. Had him on my radar since the 2005 film 'A Little Trip to Heaven' which I liked a lot. He did 'Contraband' with Mark Wahlberg last year, and that might explain how they are reunited in this production. In any event, directing in this movie, loaded with talent could not have been arduous.
SPOILER REMINDER; You've been warned. The full plot is somewhat complex but not convoluted. I'd capsulate it as: Homeland Inter-agencies debacle, run amok with corruption.
DEA, Naval Intelligence and CIA, not to mention the drug cartel, are all out to catch DEA's Robert Trench and Naval Intelligence's Michael Stigman, played respectively by Denzel Washington and Mark Wahlber, but mostly, they're after the $40million the two robbed from Cartel King-pin Papi Greco (Edwards James Olmos), though only a small fraction of that was Papi's. Stigman is under orders to get the money first and foremost; again, he thinks it's only about $3million. Bobby Trench is after Papi and has been for a long time. Neither Stigman nor Trench knows the other is undercover; they had recruited each other, buying in the other's cover. Turns out the loot belongs to the CIA, whose been scamming it from the Cartel and that's why Naval Intelligence is after it; well not officially, just a corrupt officer, Quince, played by James Marsden, is. Quince had managed to turn Deb, played by Paula Patton, girlfriend of Trench to the dark side by setting him up for the fall so they could get the money for themselves, but the CIA doesn't let that sort of thing slide and hard case Earl, played by Bill Paxton, the guy responsible to get the money back is in no mood to be nice to anyone.
Denzel and Wahlberg do a terrific job with their respective characters; the dialogue works very well for them and they know how to exploit it. I remember Denzel working with the luscious Paula Patton in 2006 in the movie 'Déjà Vu', which I enjoyed enough to recall to this day.
There are a few serious dramatic moments in this movie but they are kept in check and are not overplayed, just as the humoristic ones are restricted to that which the dialogue by itself brings out, quite nicely. The action binds the whole thing and that's why it was so much fun to watch this movie. You get intrigue, double cross, romance and ass kicking, all neatly tied together and well balanced, not to mention a great Mexican stand-off in the end. No talent was wasted in the making of this movie and so I recommend it if you are okay knowing all I wrote ahead of time.
SPOILER REMINDER; You've been warned. The full plot is somewhat complex but not convoluted. I'd capsulate it as: Homeland Inter-agencies debacle, run amok with corruption.
DEA, Naval Intelligence and CIA, not to mention the drug cartel, are all out to catch DEA's Robert Trench and Naval Intelligence's Michael Stigman, played respectively by Denzel Washington and Mark Wahlber, but mostly, they're after the $40million the two robbed from Cartel King-pin Papi Greco (Edwards James Olmos), though only a small fraction of that was Papi's. Stigman is under orders to get the money first and foremost; again, he thinks it's only about $3million. Bobby Trench is after Papi and has been for a long time. Neither Stigman nor Trench knows the other is undercover; they had recruited each other, buying in the other's cover. Turns out the loot belongs to the CIA, whose been scamming it from the Cartel and that's why Naval Intelligence is after it; well not officially, just a corrupt officer, Quince, played by James Marsden, is. Quince had managed to turn Deb, played by Paula Patton, girlfriend of Trench to the dark side by setting him up for the fall so they could get the money for themselves, but the CIA doesn't let that sort of thing slide and hard case Earl, played by Bill Paxton, the guy responsible to get the money back is in no mood to be nice to anyone.
Denzel and Wahlberg do a terrific job with their respective characters; the dialogue works very well for them and they know how to exploit it. I remember Denzel working with the luscious Paula Patton in 2006 in the movie 'Déjà Vu', which I enjoyed enough to recall to this day.
There are a few serious dramatic moments in this movie but they are kept in check and are not overplayed, just as the humoristic ones are restricted to that which the dialogue by itself brings out, quite nicely. The action binds the whole thing and that's why it was so much fun to watch this movie. You get intrigue, double cross, romance and ass kicking, all neatly tied together and well balanced, not to mention a great Mexican stand-off in the end. No talent was wasted in the making of this movie and so I recommend it if you are okay knowing all I wrote ahead of time.