Can we call a moratorium on cop movie parodies? Please?
“The Other Guys” isn’t as painful as “Cop Out,” director Kevin Smith’s attempt to wring fresh laugh out of a genre that peaked in the ’80s.
But this compilation of cop movie cliches and gun play mistakes volume for comedy. Every time the script lets the cast down, they raise their collective voice in a bid for laughter.
It also marks the uninspired pairing of Will Ferrell and Mark Wahlberg.
Suffice to say Abbott, Costello, Laurel and Hardy won’t find their legacies in jeopardy.
Detective Allen Gamble (Ferrell) spend his days doing the paperwork for the hot shot cops on the force, Highsmith (Samuel L. Jackson) and Danson (Dwayne Johnson).
That steams his new partner, Terry Hoitz (Wahlberg), who wants a piece of the action, any action.
“I’m a peacock, I need to fly,” Hoitz cries in one of many flat comedy moments.
The duo get their chance when Gamble stumbles onto the case of an evil capitalist (Steve Coogan) trying to pull a shady deal on an unknown victim.
Can the milquetoast Gamble, who’s so pathetic the police chief (Michael Keaton) replaces his revolver with a wooden gun for safety reasons, find his inner “Lethal Weapon” in time to save the day?
Maybe the buddy cop genre is too hard to spoof, or perhaps “Hot Fuzz” sucked all the juice out of the concept. Even “Fuzz” fell apart in its final reel.
Here, the laughs get front-loaded in the first half hour, as Ferrell’s nebbishy shtick clashes nicely with Wahlberg’s hothead character.
The film trots out a gaggle of comic concepts and few of them stick. Gamble’s wife (Eva Mendes) is a hottie, which leaves Hoitz flabbergasted. Why do gorgeous women dig a shlub like Gamble? Wahlberg’s initial reactions to their pairing are priceless, but the comedy rewards quickly dry up.
And the sooner we can convince Mendes she doesn’t belong in comedies, the better.
Director Adam McKay, who worked with Ferrell on “Step Brothers” and “Talladega Nights,” delivers a number of comic sequences which flop around like a fish on dry land. Consider Gamble visiting an old girlfriend’s house to glean information on the case (plain awful) and Hoitz attempting a few ballet moves to impress his girlfriend (weak).
Even a subplot involving Hoitz accidentally shooting Yankees star Derek Jeter doesn’t pan out, although we do get one great line out of it – “you shoulda shot A-Rod!”
Wahlberg proved he could do funny in the underrated “I Heart Huckabees,” but here he’s caught between playing the straight man and strangling his comic moments by screaming his lines.
“The Other Guys” delivers the promised laughs early on, but by the final half hour they’ve gone into the witness protection plan.
(Photo: Eva Mendes and Will Ferrell co-star in Columbia Pictures’ comedy “The Other Guys” Photo By: Macall Polay)
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{ 5 comments… read them below or add one }
Not surprising, this review – Ferrel’s arc has been in descent for several consecutive releases now.
IMO, he works much better as part of an ensemble – especially when seemingly unscripted – than as a lead.
~ D.
I was mislead into seeing this tedious film by the generally positive reviews. I believe the reviewers have been worn down by all the recent miserable films. I think the “other guys” idea is cute but the dialogue does not support it. Wahlberg had more funny bits in The Departed.
Can someone please tell me why this movie is getting a 76% from the critics on Rotten Tomatoes?
I totally agree with your assessment of this movie.
The lack of chemistry between Wahlberg and Ferrell is painful. Did you feel like some of their scenes together were cut and pasted?
I really like Wahlberg, especially sans shirt, but he couldn’t pull off this role even if he’d gone shirtless during the entire film (and the fact that he didn’t take his shirt off at all was bitterly disappointing).
And the anti-corporate stuff was just plain dumb. How are we suppose to take that message seriously when the movie is such a joke.
I hate that I spent my money on this one.
Lastly, do you think this movie just sucked, or has the humor of Ferrell’s comedy worn off? I think I’m getting a little tired of WF.
I’m not tired of Ferrell … I’m tired of his mediocre movies.
Something struck me as funny regarding the film’s rave reviews … the conspiratorial side of me thought it was due to the liberal bias of the film … but I don’t think that’s the case …
I’m with you … it’s a head scratcher.
I have to say, I agree with most everything you had to say. . . and I still laughed my way through this flick! Man, I really am an easy mark for moviemakers! While this film has all the issues you described, I still found myself in the throws of wild laughter throughout. I really must learn to control myself. Thanks for the write up!