The Other Guys

Buddy cop movies seem to have died out over this past decade, but the buddy cop farce is definitely picking up steam. I can see the meeting in a Hollywood production studio now: "Hey boss, why don't we put two famous actors in a movie together who obviously have different personality traits, make them partners of some sort, put them up against insurmountable odds, and eventually have them grow to be best friends?" "Overused, Johnson, you're fired. How about we take that idea and call it a comedy?" "Brilliant idea, boss. That's why you're the boss." "You're rehired, Johnson."


And against insurmountable odds, Will Ferrell and Adam McKay have done just that.


Detectives Allen Gamble (Will Ferrell) and Terry Hoitz (Mark Wahlberg), are probably the worst cops on the force. Gamble is basically the workhorse who does everyone's paperwork and Hoitz accidentally shot Derek Jeter after mistaking his bat for a deadly weapon. They live in the shadow of Highsmith and Danson (Samuel L. Jackson and Dwayne Johnson), two detectives who are much, much better and cooler at what they do. But when Danson and Highsmith mistakenly throw themselves off of a ten-story building in pursuit of a suspect, Gamble and Hoitz must prove themselves by uncovering a Bernie Madoff-esque crime to become respected detectives.


If it wasn't so obviously a comedy, it sounds like it could be a remake of "Lethal Weapon" - a movie that is inadvertently a comedy. Anyways the casting in "The Other Guys" is pretty brilliant. Will Ferrell's nice sensitive guy a la "Elf," and Mark Wahlberg's tough guy act a la "The Departed". If it hasn't been yet, it will be considered the funniest pairing of this year.


"The Other Guys" is only really funny because of these two. Ferrell is flawless as the nice, gullible guy; easily convinced to pull off a desk pop (firing your gun in the police station). Wahlberg is the bully who grew up and has delusions of grandeur (he is convinced that everyone after him is part of a Columbian drug cartel). His constant berating of Ferrell's character for being a wuss and peeing in a feminine manner caused me some constant amusement.


They aren't the only ones who throw some comedic weight around. Michael Keaton stars as the police chief who moonlights at Bed, Bath and Beyond. And Eva Mendes plays Ferrell's wife which confuses Mark Wahlberg to no end. ("Who is that?" "That's the old ball and chain" "No, seriously who is that?")


For a comedy, "The Other Guys" has some fairly good action scenes. Scenes that really have put other movies to shame this past year. It's kind of ironic when a comedy pulls off better action sequences then action movies do.


My two complaints run like this: although very funny, this movie didn't have me rolling on the floor. Which I really wanted to do, because the writing was smart, the actors were great, but I just didn't feel it completely. My other is that Mark Wahlberg's role could have easily been played by John C. Reilly, and I feel like that was the original intent, but thankfully someone smart stepped in and switched that up, making an infinitely better movie.


Not the funniest movie of the year, but a pretty good film nonetheless. One that other movies could take  a few pointers from.


2 and a half out of 4 stars


-Christopher O'Connell