Although it is nice to laugh in a Will Ferrell movie again, a bland run-of-the-mill story bogs this hilarious movie down.
- Who's going to like it: fans of Ferrell/McKay comedy collaborations ('Anchorman,' 'Talladega Nights,' 'Step Brothers') and bad buddy cop movies.
The opening sequence to The Other Guys is so hilarious that I, along with many others, am demanding a spin-off based on these characters. Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson (The Rundown) and Samuel L. Jackson (Iron Man 2) are die-hard heroic New York City cops. They pull unbelievable stunts, spout out the one-liners and do things that only stars in action movies get to do. If you don’t die laughing in their opening sequence, then you might as well walk out and get you money back because this movie isn’t made for you.
When New York’s hero cops are put out of commission due to a bad accident, every other pair of cops out there is trying to replace them in the spotlight – including “the other guys.”
Will Ferrell (Anchorman) and Mark Wahlberg (The Departed) play the New York Police Department's misfits. Ferrell plays Allen Gamble, a pocket protector-wielding forensic accountant who would rather work his stable behind-the-desk job than be in harms way out in the streets. Wahlberg plays Terry Hoitz, Gamble's short-fused time bomb-of-a-partner who cost the department thousands in lost bets after he accidentally shot Yankee Derek Jeter. As Hoitz begins to drag Gamble out from behind his desk, these two clowns end up entangled in one of the biggest corporate scandals of all time.
When it comes to storytelling, The Other Guys is very similar to this summer’s hit Grown Ups – most of the scenes are pointlessly written just to get the characters placed in a certain scenarios. They wind up at the scene of an explosion. There’s a jumper standing on the ledge of a building that they have to coax back down to safety. There’s a scene where they have to play “good cop, bad cop.” Most of these instances have no real relevance to the story at hand, but are written in anyways just to put the characters there. If a scene doesn’t further the development of a story, then it is filler. The Other Guys is chock full of comedic filler.
The third act completely falls apart – even when it comes to laughs. Previously funny jokes are beaten like a dead horse, the story crumbles to pieces and all of a sudden it becomes a movie with a strong political message.
If you plan on seeing The Other Guys just for laughs, then you will enjoy it. If not, know that that’s all you are going to get.
Photo credit: Columbia Pictures
(3 out of 5)
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