A textbook example of how expectations can alter your experience at the movies. I think this movie looked like generic junk a couple months——-hell, a couple weeks before it opened. And then the buzz got progressively better a few days before it opened (reviews were actually good, there were rumored to be interesting twists, Paula Patton had a nude scene, Bill Paxton’s “villain” supposedly stole scenes, etc.). Well, with those heightened expectations I went in hoping to see a sharp, original action/noir/buddy-comedy…and I left disappointed.
What Works: Denzel and Wahlberg could play these parts in their sleep. Bill Paxton does manage some laughs out of too-few scenes. And the radiant Paula Patton is always luminous, hypnotizing your eyes and always feels just one breakout role away from super-stardom (here’s hoping she doesn’t become the bi-racial Jennifer Garner…an actress who never really found the right movie role during or after Alias). The audience laughed at the jokes, and had a good time with the ending, but there’s just something a little off about the whole thing…
What Doesn’t Work: Most of the things that supposedly “work” about the film miss by a hair. The interplay between Wahlberg and Washington isn’t special, and could just as easily be Jake Gyllenhaal and Jamie Foxx or James Franco and Idris Elba. You could insert any number of stars in the roles and they’d probably be just as good. The big Paula Patton nude scene is for about 4 seconds in the first ten minutes and her draping hair is used to cover most of what you would see. [Compare that to Rosario Dawson’s nude scenes and you’ll see how it should be.] Even Bill Paxton’s villain doesn’t make the same impact you’ve been told he does, as he’s in too few scenes and is too often just playing a regular heavy with a few lightly comedic moments. And the “twists and turns and double crosses?” You can see them coming a mile away if you’ve ever watched a movie before and are conscious while watching this one. In one character’s first few lines of dialogue I knew something was up. Plus, the ending is beyond ridiculous and the entire enterprise really loses steam in the last 15 or so minutes.
What I Would Have Done Differently: The idea of rival government agencies all going after some money is a very good one, so why not play that up? Most people who’ve ever worked for the different military branches or spy agencies will admit that they don’t like each other very much, so why limit it to just a few dirty agents instead of making a really entertaining film about competing government agencies/operatives going at each other? Make it a public sector version of The Maltese Falcon and you would have an infinitely more original/interesting movie.