In this star vehicle for Denzel Washington and Mark Wahlberg, the headlights are on full beam but the engine is struggling in second gear. Some will welcome the very notion of an old-school cop movie which hasn’t been CGI-ed up the wazoo, but they’d welcome it even more if it had a plot we cared about and fresher car chases, shootouts and punch-ups. Still, Denzel, splitting the difference between righteous decency and badass mofo, is in cruise control as a bank robber with a secret identity, while Wahlberg surprises us all with a hilarious motormouth turn as the partner in crime with a complex backstory.
In Tex-Mex territory teeming with drug cartels, Washington and Wahlberg choose the wrong bank to rob. 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 (‘101 Reykjavik’). Final tally: 30 mins absolutely primo banter, 80 mins gubbins. Occasionally fun, but those numbers don’t quite add up.