First Hit: From a tongue-in-cheek point of view, watching Denzel Washington and Mark Wahlberg work together was really fun.
The problem with this film is the script. There are just a few to many twists and turns to make this really hold together well.
However, the interaction between the two actors was wonderful. It seemed as though they probably had a gas working together. They were great in their characters as unidentified agents of the government.
Trench (Washington) is an undercover DEA agent who is attempting to set-up the arrest of Papi Greco (Edward James Olmos) a major cocaine dealer. Stigman (Wahlberg) is with a Navy investigative unit that is trying to recover money that was taken from a crime.
Together they decide to rob a bank for different unspoken reasons. What they end up doing is stealing a bank full of money put there by the CIA. Now the CIA area agent headed by Earl (Bill Paxton) who is a cruel man prone to using Russian roulette as a way to get people to talk. One of the lures to draw Trench deeper into the fray was his part-time lover Deb (Paula Patton).
So what the film tries to sort out is why the Navy, CIA, DEA and a drug cartel are fighting about $43.125 million dollars and how a friendship grew.
Washington is his usual strong centered intelligent character. Wahlberg is goofy bold in his approach to life and the mission. Paxton is excellent as the thuggish CIA lead. Olmos did a very good job of being the drug kingpin who needed to be taken down a notch. Patton was OK in her minor and pivotal role. Blake Masters wrote the convoluted screen play with enough comedy to redeem his effort. Baltasar Kormakur directed this team of top-notch actors and made it hold together by expanding the personality of the characters and using his actors well.
Overall: This was an amusing film but any other two actors in the lead and this film fails.