Fun with Will and Mark
The Other Guys
Cast: Will Ferrell, Mark Wahlberg
Direction: Adam McKay
Rating: ***
A veritable tossed salad of a movie that blends buddy-cop satire with high-octane action, The Other Guys marks the fourth collaboration between Will Ferrell and his Saturday Night Live alumnus-turned-helmer Adam McKay.
The script, which has the hit-and-miss quality of an extended sitcom sketch, isn’t the primary interest here. Indeed, the storyline serves simply as a backdrop for the cavalcade of low-end jokes that we have come to expect from the actor-director duo of Anchorman, Talladega Nights and Step Brothers.
Don’t look for a sliver of sense, then. Attempting to send-up the odd couple comedy genre, the plot zeroes in on a pair of mismatched New York detectives. They are as unalike as night and day. One (Ferrell) is a mild-tempered sort who seems satisfied with pursuing paper work.
By contrast, his hotheaded partner (Wahlberg), who has been demoted to dull desk duties following the accidental shooting of a local celebrity, is impatient to return to the mean streets.
When the city’s coolest cops (Samuel L. Jackson-Dwayne Johnson, both quite endearing) fall victim to their own arrogance, the goofball underlings stumble onto a complex case of financial fraud.
Self-aware and silly, the dialogue often even lacks improvisatory spark. However, the film does provide a few guffaws at the expense of the long-suffering police captain (Michael Keaton, suitably, unhinged) and the pencil-pushing lawman’s unexpectedly gorgeous wife (Eva Mendes). Also, there are blink-and-you’ll-miss-’em cameos from Anne Heche and former Pretty Baby Brooke Shields.
All said and smiled, the shenanigans of The Other Guys makes for pleasant viewing while it lasts.