Starring Denzel Washington and Mark Wahlberg. Rated 14A.

You may have noticed that the trailer for 2 Guns has a kind of urban Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid vibe. As it turns out, the two leads—a dapper Denzel Washington and a refreshingly engaging Mark Wahlberg—let the quips fly almost as fast as the bullets that keep whizzing over their heads. These guys are so cool they barely bother to sweat.

There’s plenty of easygoing charm here, some of it oddly misplaced, but it’s best not to be fooled by the relentless banter: this is one bloody buddy movie (based on a popular graphic novel). Director Baltasar Kormákur serves up the violence fast, heavy, and without so much as a side dish of remorse.

Washington plays Bobby, an undercover DEA agent who is under the impression that Wahlberg’s Stig is crooked. Wahlberg is actually an undercover naval intelligence officer who thinks Bobby is a lowlife mobster. They’re both on the trail of millions in dirty money, but by the time they get their true identities sorted out, they realize that their respective superiors are using them as scapegoats for some very ugly business.

This is the kind of movie where no official organization can be trusted. The CIA is just as crooked as the navy brass. And the Mexican mafia? They’re not exactly boy scouts either.

Naturally, we’re supposed to identify with our two heroes when they go rogue. But it’s just as much fun watching the bad guys chew the scenery: Bill Paxton has a great time playing a sadistic CIA henchman, and Edward James Olmos oozes greasy elegance as an aging mobster.

Still, there’s definitely something off-kilter here. The heavy-handed violence just doesn’t mix with all the breezy patter. What can you say when a supposedly playful Bobby shoots Stig in the leg and a mildly irritated Stig keeps chatting away like he’s been stung by a wasp? Shut up, maybe?