This is not a great movie--there are no hidden messages, no points to ponder long after the credits have rolled. Take home messages are that when investigating bad guys, follow the money. The good guys might be bad guys--if you follow the money, there will be clues related to who is a good guy and who is a bad guy amongst the presumably good guys (ie. government agents and law enforcement). Drugs generate a lot of money and are associated with a lot of violence. Many people get killed, none of them are people you feel particularly bad about. Money brings power and arrogance, niether of which makes a person more likable.
It does feature two great actors who are often, if not always, worth watching. Stig (Mark Wahlberg) is an undercover Navy officer and Bobby (Denzel Washington) is an undercover DEA agent. It is not exactly a match made in heaven, but over the course of the movie they come to trust each other a bit, if only because there is no one else. There chemistry is good, and they are pretty funny in a shoot-em-up kind of way. The acting is far better than is required for the standard action film, lets put is that way.
The real star here is that money, from the beginning and definitely at the end. The sheer physical size of it makes it damn near impossible to transport. The movie gets plenty of mileage from this; when Stig tells Bobby to take it all, I thought about how long it must have taken him to load it into their car. Later, in the film's best sequence, said money not only upstages Bobby and Stig but elevates them to their highest level of badass.
Sunday, March 2, 2014
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