subject: The Other Guys Film Review Online [print this page] Will Ferrell and Adam McKay have previously worked together on 3 films, the very funny and successful Anchorman and Talladega Nights and the not so funny and disappointing Step Brothers. Thankfully The Other Guys shows that this team is back in fine form.
In many movies about cops you typically have a set of partners that are so good, so daring and so heroic that they are dubbed Super Cops by their colleagues and the general public. The Other Guys are NOT those cops.
The Other Guys are Forensic Accountant Alan Gamble (a superb Will Ferrell) who enjoys being a paper-filing desk jockey, and his frustrated hard-ass partner Detective Terry Hoitz (Mark Wahlberg) who dreams of being a crime-fighting super cop. In Hoitzs mind, he would already be one of those super cops if one he wasnt anchored to his excitement-avoiding partner and two . he wasnt consistently being harassed, heckled and ridiculed for accidently shooting Derek Jeter.
Hoitz sees his chance when the NYPDs hot-shot super cop detectives P.K. Highsmith (Samuel L. Jackson) and Christopher Danson (Dwayne Johnson) are forced out of action in a truly hilarious scene. Suddenly there is a spot open for a pair of action heroes and Hoitz doesnt want to miss his opportunity. Looking to dump his boring assignment he finds a much better one in Gambles files in the form of a Ponzi scheme involving international terrorists. He pressures Gamble to get out from behind his desk and the two of them begin their quest for celebrity cop fame. Unfortunately (fortunately for the audience!) this results in massive unintended property damage, accidental destruction of evidence, trampling of citizens rights and multiple dressing-downs by their captain (a much missed Michael Keaton).
As an actor Ferrell is a master at stating the obvious and making it sound funny. The films teasers include a scene where Gamble and Hoitz are knocked down into the street by a nearby buildings explosion. Gamble immediately starts yelling about how on TV that never seems to hurt and never seems that loud. On paper that is not funny, but Ferrells delivery and expressions make it work. It is the ingredient that was missing in Step Brothers.
McKay has done a great job in lampooning stereotypical characters found in cops and robber movies. Samuel L. Jacksons and Dwayne Johnsons super-cops are so over-the-top and delusional in their crime-fighting abilities that the audience is laughing from the very beginning. The director should consider doing another movie on just these two characters.
The chemistry between Ferrell and Wahlberg is good but not great. But the jokes are so good and come so fast that this doesnt sink the movie. If anything the jokes are TOO good in that you really notice when you get to a stretch in the movie where the jokes are only so-so.
Overall this movie is a winner and another high point in the collaboration between actor Will Ferrell and director Adam McKay.
by: Ned Beatty
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