Two Guys is the equivalent of a Hollywood slapstick comedy. Think Dumb and Dumber, with a touch more intelligence, and you have Two Guys. The Korean theme currently seems to follow the “If It’s already done, let’s do it ourselves” ethos. Disappointingly, Two Guys is a by the numbers piece of work.
The plot is wafer thing, and riddled with illogical ideas and absurdities. It is a comedy, I accept this, but it’s the dumb comedy genre, and there’s nothing particular special about it. Hoon is a loan shark dogsbody, who is sent to find Jung-Tae to retrieve the money that he borrowed. Over the course of their brief encounter, they pick up an American who happens to be involved in stealing a very valuable briefcase for which people are out to kill for. Jung-Tae and Hoon are as incompetent as each other, and the cliched love/hate friendship develops as they try to flog off the briefcase while trying to save their skins and get rid of each other.
It’s pretty standard fare as plots go, and it’s unfortunate that something so poorly constructed could be released to such high ratings in Korea. They’ve obviously been starved of comedy. This has neither the slap stick or aggressive humour of Attack the Gas Station or My Boss, My Hero nor the smarter, drier humour of My Wife is a Gangster. If you replaced the cast with US, changed the setting to the US, then you would have Dumb and Dumber 3. It’s that simple, and that generic a comedy as you could expect.
Two Guys does manage to pull of some stupid humour such as the hilarious tug of war scene, or the repetitious, but amusing, chase scene in the hostel. The final chase scene and the fights are also laugh out loud moments, but these are few, and very far between. At close to two hours long, you don’t get much for your money, and you often wonder if there’s something else to watch.
Direction is enjoyable sometimes, but for the most part it’s pretty unoriginal. There are moments, such as the split screen scenes, where it adds something different to what you’re typically used to seeing. But again, there’s just not enough of this to really make it outstanding or smart.
The biggest problem is the poor chemistry between the two man characters. They just don’t gel well enough together, and there’s very little humour between the two. It’s rather ironic then that the largest laughs come from scenes involving others, rather than the two on screen alone. There seems to have been a serious mismatch in the casting, and for me, I just couldn’t enjoy the film listening to the tedious flat jokes that came at me ad nauseum.
This is juvenile comedy at its worst, no doubt aimed at pre-pubescent teens who found the likes of American Pie or Dumb & Dumber amusing. Comedy of the lowest common denominator, which is about as funny as having a rabbit pull a chestnut out of its backside while wearing oven gloves. The homosexual references are so 80s, it beggars belief that the script writer and director actually considered these jokes to be funny. I guess Korean comedy has a long way to go, with regards to smart, intelligent humour. By comparison, Napoleon Dynamite is Einstein, and Two Guys is Cher; they are that far apart in intelligence and humour.
It does have some moments, but I think these aren’t enough to really recommend this trash piece of filming. I should have known better than to watch a Park Hun-Su film; a man that is consistently churning out tragic excuses for film, however, I think everyone deserves a chance. Unfortunately for me, I sat through this dreary, dull and ludicrously poor comedy finish with a decidedly unsatisfactory feeling of being cheated of of close to two hours of my time. There’s not much else to say about this rubbish. If want an enjoyable alternative, try My Sassy Girl; an exceptional piece of comedy.
Verdict: Juvenile trash comedy that isn’t even funny. Avoid.