The Other Guys (***)
Directed by: Adam McKay
Starring: Will Ferrell, Mark Wahlberg, Eva Mendes, Dwayne
Johnson, Samuel L. Jackson, Michael Keaton, Steve Coogan, Ray Stevenson, Rob
Riggle, Damon Wayans Jr., Anne Heche
See: September 26th 2010
*** Out of ****
The Other Guys is Will Ferrell’s long-awaited return to the
comic genius he can be. Teaming up with director Adam McKay for the fourth time
(previously on Anchorman, Talladega Nights, and Step Brothers), the team has
crafted a hilarious movie that keeps on being funny for its entire runtime, be
it along the main storyline or down one of many sidetracks. While in most
comedies I’d be happy with a 60% joke hit-rate, The Other Guys delivered the
goods at a rate of more than 90%, with the trailer not having spoiled the
entire movie, having shown only a few partially funny moments from the movie.
Detectives Allen Gamble (Ferrell) and Terry Hoitz (Wahlberg)
are the other guys at their police department singing not second fiddle, but
dead-last fiddle to just about everyone in the building. The heros are
Detectives Christopher Danson (Johnson)
and PK Highsmith (Jackson), true rock-star police officers who have no problem
causing damage to the city of New York in the amount of $12 million to
apprehend criminals in possession of a pound of marijuana. The guys who sing
second fiddle to them are Detectives Evan Martin (Riggle) and Fosse (Wayans),
who in turn dumps on Gamble and Hoitz without a moment of hesitation, ever.
Gamble worships Danson and Highsmith, even though they treat him as the worst
kind of insignificant nothing, and his partner Hoitz is only stuck with Gamble
because he shot Derek Jeter, a famous professional baseball player, while on
security detail seven years earlier. On yet another high octane chase Danson
and Highsmith end up on top of a 20 storey building chasing criminals who just
cut the line they used to reach ground level with. Danson and Highsmith inexplicable
decide to aim for the bushes (there are no bushes, part of the movie’s comedic
charm), and jump to their deaths, leaving a gap in the NYPD crime fighting
force for Gamble and Hoitz to fill.
Gamble, as a forensic accountant, wants to go after the
multi-billionaire David Ershon (Coogan) as he is violating scaffolding permit
requirements at his various build sites across the city. In his sole investigations
(Hoitz and Gamble are re-assigned after numerous screw-ups) he unwittingly
uncovers a much larger plot to steal $32 billion dollars, and as is the normal
plot trajectory with buddy comedies, Gamble and Hoitz also go through their
highs and lows as partners, eventually teaming up again to finalise the case.
The Other Guys is hilarious from start to finish, with very
little of the jokes not working or eliciting at least a smirk. The movie is
packed full of opportunities for the strangest types of humour – an old lady passing
on verbal messages between her daughter, Dr. Sheila Ramos Gamble and Sheila’s
husband, Gamble – that gets pretty privileged (as in stays in marriage behind
closed doors privileged) pretty quickly; Will Ferrell interrupting a
conversation to join in the strangest song in an Irish Pub and many more are
just small examples of exceedingly funny sidelines in the movie – pay attention
to the jokes and you will be well-rewarded. The Other Guys is not what its
advertising made it out to be, it is much more, an action comedy with good
action at welcome intervals and great comedy permeating every second of this side-splitting
movie.
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