The way the business of films is covered in the media and on the internet these days, it is rare that I get an invitation to screen a flick that I know next to nothing about. It is something I wish would happen more often: not knowing what actor is going to show up next, or how much of the story was completely spoiled by the trailers makes watching a new story so much more enjoyable … as long as the story is worth watching. And so it was with my screening of Baltasar Kormákur’s latest flick, 2 Guns.

The flick stars Denzel Washington (the only thing I knew going in) and Mark Wahlberg as two partners-in-crime … or a pair of undercover agents who each believes they are working with a real criminal. (Don’t get me started on Wahlberg’s character’s backstory; I’m not sure they could have been more technically inconsistent if they tried.) The rest of the cast is surprisingly solid on paper: Edward James Olmos plays a the leader of a drug cartel the duo are trying to take down, Paula Patton is Denzel’s control officer while James Marsden is Wahlberg’s boss and Bill Paxton rounds out the cast as mysterious character whose bad side the duo quickly find themselves on.

When the flick is about Denzel and Wahlberg riding in a car or sitting across from each other at a diner table, busting each other’s chops, it excels. The two have a great chemistry, and play off of each other very well. Wahlberg is particularly funny, playing his character just enough over-the-top without going overboard (think Mel Gibson in the Lethal Weapon flicks minus the crazy). Denzel, however, is playing a character who’s playing an undercover role that’s basically half of his IMDB page … but since he’s so good at playing it, it is easily forgiven.

Unfortunately, there’s more to the movie than the two of them arguing. 2 Guns is based on a comic book I’m not familiar with, so I can’t say how directly lifted from the page the plot is, but it is horrible. It is like the writer indiscriminately decided to reveal certain information about the story at random times, because keeping the audience in the dark makes your movie look smarter. (Hint: Smart films that do this are smart, dumb films that do this are still dumb and now annoying to boot.) The worst part is that the vast majority of reveals are incredibly obvious; in particular the secret connection between two characters is easily sussed out. Also, I couldn’t tell if Paxton’s character’s story was supposed to be a big reveal or not; he says something during his first appearance on screen that made it clear who he was, but when it was revealed later in the flick, everyone in the theatre I was in reacted.

As much as the plot irritated (read: pissed me off), I can’t say I walked out of movie completely having disliked it. As I said, I could have watched a whole movie that was the two leads sitting in a car on a stakeout; the schtick they have playing off of each other is just that fun. Paula Patton also impressed; she played a scene opposite Washington’s character while speaking on the phone that was particularly well performed. I also enjoy an adult comedy, one that’s not afraid to amp up the violence while not making things so serious. It isn’t everyday you can laugh at chickens being shot with handguns, but Wahlberg’s undercover persona’s “panache” somehow makes it work.

I’d hoped that after seeing 2 Guns, I would be feel the need to immediately check out the source material (as much as a film like Wanted is derided, I enjoyed it and the books it was based on). Sadly, the problems I had with the flick’s story — and that the most enjoyable part was the leads’ acting — leads me to believe that as “meh” as I was about the flick, I’d like the books even less.

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Michael Bay is pretty much the quintessential director when it comes to action films. His name and his films are synonymous with fast cars, scantily clad exotic women, raunchy humor, slow motion shots and explosions. Lots and lots of explosions. So it was to my surprise when I heard Bay was tapped to helm and direct Pain & Gain, a movie based on the Sun Gym Gang’s kidnapping, extortion and murder spree that took place in Miami during the mid-nineties – a far cry from the Transformers film trilogy he just completed.

Thinking that Bay’s movie-making values and philosophy had reached a level of maturity after learning about the subject matter of his post-Transformers film I went into Pain & Gain expecting Bay to show me something new. Something fresh. Something I hadn’t seen from him before.

Well … let’s just say some things change and some things stay the same. Here’s the breakdown.

Without spoiling too much of the plot Pain & Gain stars Mark Wahlberg and Anthony Mackie as Daniel Lugo and Adrian Doorbal respectively, two body builders who work at Sun Gym in Miami. Lugo helps turn things around at the gym to compete against the rival Gold’s Gym but still finds himself stuck and in a rut and wanting more out of life. After crossing paths with very wealthy and belittling client Victor Kershaw (brilliantly played by Tony Shalhoub), Lugo hatches a scheme to kidnap, torture and extort him for his fortune. New Sun Gym recruit Paul Doyle (Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson) is brought into the fold to round out the scheme and the rest is history and for you to find out.

Pain & Gain sports a well-balanced cast that actually worked surprisingly well together on screen. I’m usually apprehensive about Mark Wahlberg who usually acts in one of two modes, either overly over-the-top and dramatic or overly over-the-top moronic, with little wiggle room for go-between. In this film however he was able to play a pumped up meat-head without a problem.

I will have to say however that The Rock’s performance in this film is probably what saved it for me. It was so different to see Johnson take on a role where he was a softy ex-con with a heart of gold. His comedic timing was great and he was ultimately the glue that held the film together in my opinion – which is probably why they marketed it so heavily with Johnson all over the posters even though his character doesn’t even show up until a third of the way through the film. Ed Harris’ and Rebel Wilson’s characters also stand out among the film’s cast and round out the rest of the key players in the film’s story.

Now I liked quite a bit about this film. But liking Pain & Gain for some of the reasons that you may find yourself liking it for is a double-edged sword – and therein lies where the moral dilemma comes in. But first I’ll start by mentioning what I liked about the movie.

One of the aspects of Pain & Gain that I found very satisfying was the point-of-view changes that were thrown into the film to tell a character’s side of the story and give the audience a look inside their world from their perspective. Side-stepping from the story briefly to look into the minds of the characters was jarring at first but you got used to it rather quickly and the clever usage of voice over, the believable acting and text layover effects really sold it.

Michael Bay also did a sly job of still making this film a typical Michael Bay movie which I found to be quite surprising given the nature of the film’s subject matter. The raunchy humor was still ever present along with the scantily clad exotic women, fast cars, slow motion effects and of course … an explosion. Coupled with the cast’s superb acting chemistry and The Rock’s stand-out performance, Bay was surprisingly able to deliver a crime-thrilling action-comedy that really brings it home. Yes, I said comedy.

Now here’s that moral question I kept referring to and what I didn’t like about the film. I went into this movie knowing it was based on true events involving kidnapping, torture and even a murder or two thrown in for good measure. I wasn’t sure that the tone Bay took with this film was the right one. Because Pain & Gain basically made out the Sun Gym Gang’s exploits out to be a joke. I was entertained and I laughed at things that I probably shouldn’t have been laughing about. Should I have enjoyed the hilarity and antics Bay portrayed onscreen? Even though people’s lives were affected by the actual events? Had this movie been purely fiction I wouldn’t have had this moral question looming over my head after seeing the film.

I recall probably the most signature moment in the film where the movie reached a point where the insanity of Pain & Gain actually had to be summed up with a subtitle that flashed onto the screen that read “This is still based on a true story.” And me along with the rest of the audience laughed. Pain & Gain was funny. But in actuality it probably was handled insensitively.

If you can look beyond the fact of the rather insensitive and tactless approach to portraying the subject matter, Pain & Gain can actually be an entertaining film. If you’re a fan of Michael Bay this film won’t disappoint, nor will it let you down if you’re a fan of Mark Wahlberg and especially The Rock. My only request is that you at least be mindful of the serious nature of this movie’s truthful origins.

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My new year started off awesomely. Mark Wahlberg stopped in Philadelphia for a screening of Broken City. He not only took a good minute to greet the fans outside, but once inside the Prince Music Theater he literally took time to answer every single blogger’s question and to take pictures with every single member of the press core and their friends. And, he did so incredibly casually. Sure, walking the red carpet, chatting with press and talking to local politicians/celebrities is his job, but it doesn’t mean he can’t enjoy it. He greeted Mayor Nutter and Sharon Pinkenson of the Greater Philadelphia Film Office like old friends and took a good five minutes to chat with an extreme fan who waited beside me on the press line for an hour and described her incredible love of him in the interim. Is he incredibly fit? Hell, yes. While rocking a short-sleeved black polo I learned that he has the most well-defined forearms ever.

What made it even better included seeing Allen Hughes of the Hughes brothers, who also directed this film, join in the fun. Before the Cohen and Nolan brothers took over, the Hughes brothers rocked it with Menace II Society and Dead Presidents in the 90s. Halfway through the press flashing, Allen jokingly took out his camera and took pictures of us as we took pictures of him.

Even if Mark Wahlberg and Allen Hughes weren’t there, I definitely had an awesome time talking to my fellow on-line media writers. Everyone just seemed incredibly positive and incredibly pumped. And, I won’t lie, a good many of us couldn’t stop singing “Good Vibrations.” I finally understood the SNL “Talk to Animals“/”Say Hi to Your Mother For Me” skit. Mark is literally the type of guy who will just walk from person to person and have an invested conversation with each of them.

Broken City stars Mark Wahlberg, Russell Crowe, and Catherine Zeta-Jones and is directed by Allen Hughes. It opens January 18th, nation-wide.