Review of The Other Guys

THE GIST:

Two detectives played by Dwayne Johnson and Samuel L. Jackson are the crime-fighting, borderline celebrity detectives that handle all the dangerous car chases and shootouts that the streets of New York City throws at them. They are adored and valued by their city and their colleagues of the NYPD. But they’re not what this movie is about. It is about the men who stay at the police headquarters and complete all the necessary administrative deskwork while their fellow officers tackle their respective duties in the field. These detective partners, played by Will Ferrell and Mark Wahlberg, are the eponymous “other guys.” The movie, co-written and directed by frequent Ferrell collaborator Adam McKay, follows the duo as they set out to crack a case and advance beyond the everyday minutiae of their uneventful jobs. But to do so, they must rise above their own past and present problems first.

THE JUDGMENT:

When you look at the list of movies debuting in American cinemas, we see horror movies (Piranha 3-D, The Last Exorcism ), smarmy romance (The Switch, Going the Distance ), and sadistically brutal action flicks (Machete, The Expendables ). What’s first thing that comes to my mind at first glance? “Where are all the laughs?” Laughter is the best medicine, after all, so where am I supposed to go to get my fix? Certainly not to a screening of Dinner for Schmucks or Vampires Suck ! If I wanted to cringe and leave when I’m not supposed to, I’d go to a live screening of Two and a Half Men ! My fellow Americans, The Other Guys is the answer to your comedic prayers.

If there’s one thing Will Ferrell is good at, it’s teaming up with Adam McKay to make us laugh. From Anchorman to Talladega Nights to Step Brothers , this dynamic duet never seems to fail at splitting our sides. This time, Mark Wahlberg joins in on the fun as Terry Hoitz, the bitter, reluctant detective partner of Will Ferrell’s Allen Gamble. Allen never wants to go out and catch the bad guys the way his partner pines to every day, which greatly irks Terry. This rocky relationship makes for excellent comedic fodder for Ferrell and Wahlberg, who work off each other quite well and are the source of much of the laughs in this film.

The two try to make it out of the office by tracking down David Ershon, a Madoff-esque Ponzi schemer played by Steve Coogan. However, they are met with opposition from Ershon’s men as well as their disbelieving NYPD colleagues. This, of course, does not do any good for their already unstable partnership; but that only adds funny fuel to the hilarious fire. Also funny is the chief of police with a Bed Bath and Beyond supervisor job on the side played by Michael Keaton as well as the aforementioned acclaimed cops played Dwayne Johnson and Samuel L. Jackson.

However, the balance between comedy and action tilts a bit too far in favor of action. Not that the in-your-face editing and cinematography is of lower quality, it’s just that The Other Guys didn’t need such a great dosage of that element. The plot also can’t decide whether it wants the movie to be comedy or action, so it goes down the action avenue and takes itself too seriously when it should have done the opposite and gone for the all-out silliness. As a result, the laughs only occur in brief increments and sits passenger seat to the pedestrian buddy-cop plot; although the writers apparently thought that they were creating something new by adding a recession element to the story via Steve Coogan’s character.

They even went so far as to include in the end credits a slide show of corporate greed that led to economic turmoil in the United States. Normally, you’d expect a slight gag reel at the end in Adam McKay films like Anchorman and Talladega Nights . But a PowerPoint slideshow of recessional bad deeds? That’s a sure sign that writers McKay and Chris Henchy were playing it much more serious than in previous works.

THE VERDICT:

As a film in general, you could do better. But as a film in theaters now, you could do a lot worse. The Other Guys will provide you with plentiful laughs, particularly from Ferrell and Wahlberg. It’s the funniest film in cinemas now and is worth seeing.