Director Bases '2 Guns' Villain on George W. Bush

Hollywood still suffers from Bush Derangement Syndrome.

It’s been five years since President George W. Bush exited the Oval Office, but the industry’s knee-jerk need to mock the ex-president hasn’t faded with time.

Consider Girl Most Likely, the new film which named a character who has trouble with the truth George Boosh.

Now, the upcoming action comedy 2 Guns also finds inspiration in Bush, although audiences won’t likely be able to detect it from the comfort of their seats.

The film’s director, Baltasar Kormakur of Contraband fame, explains the connection.

We just went through a collapse in Iceland, and the government is hated by every single person. I don’t think “2 Guns” is an indictment towards the American government, it’s that the establishment in general has become corrupt. This was basically in the script. It’s also, tonally, not like we’re blaming the government; it’s light and twisted. Bill Paxton, I love, with his bolo tie: This is a little bit how people saw Bush! What did he say in those difficult times? “We’ll hunt you down”? Like a cowboy. This was the way the rest of the world sees Bush, like this character.

2 Guns follows a pair of undercover agents (Denzel Washington, Mark Wahlberg) being hunted by a vicious killer (Paxton) over a very large sum of cash.

The film does take a cynical look at the U.S. government, but it also elbows into the illegal immigrant debate from an expected angle. A Mexican character played by Edward James Olmos implies that the U.S. is to blame for illegal immigrants swarming its borders.

Later, the main characters are forced to trek from Mexico to the U.S. alongside Mexicans hoping to reach American soil, a sequence meant to show the adversity illegals overcome in their quest for the American dream.