The Other Guys (2010)
Directed by Adam McKay
Unlike their heroic counterparts on the force, desk-bound NYPD detectives Gamble and Hoitz garner no headlines as they work day to day. When a seemingly minor case turns out to be a big deal, the two cops get the opportunity to finally prove to their comrades that they have the right stuff.
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McKay (mostly) pulls off something kind of fascinating here: He's made a huge comedy that ruthlessly rips on corporate corruption through a lens of absurdist gags while mounting reasonably credible action scenes, including a climactic chase clearly meant as an homage to the epic conclusion of "The Blues Brothers."
The showoff cops played by Samuel L. Jackson and Dwayne Johnson, who get the movie going with an amusing car pile-up not seen since The Blues Brothers, would have provided greater balance and a real rooting interest when set against the Ferrell/Wahlberg “other guys.”
The Other Guys is never quite a spoof in The Naked Gun vein, but its too comedically distinctive to fall into the common action-comedy trap of avoiding laughs in favor of pyrotechnics.
It helps that Ferrells regular collaborator, director Adam McKay (Anchorman, Talladega Nights, Step Brothers), has a visual panache thats rare in Hollywood comedies, and especially useful when shoot-outs and car chases come into play.
Ferrell’s most frequent collaborator is writer/director Adam McKay, who steered “Talladega Nights,” “Step Brothers” and “Anchorman.”
These other guys are fizzing bottles of impotent rage, which they unleash on each other in hissy fits that recall the anarchic sprawl of McKay’s last Ferrell comedy Step Brothers.
Ferrell's always good, but he's at his best with McKay, with whom he created Ron Burgundy in "Anchorman" and Brennan Huff in "Step Brothers."
By fitting the typical Ferrell/McKay free-associative strangeness into a familiar genre, Other Guys more closely resembles Talladega Nights than the untethered insanity of Anchorman or Step Brothers.
It's a delight to see Michael Keaton in a comic role again as Ferrell's harried boss, although it's a shock to see the former "Batman" looking small and frail.
It's like a Batman movie that tracks one of Commissioner Gordon's underlings.
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The Rock, meanwhile, channels Arnold Schwarzenegger from Last Action Hero .
It's part "Starsky and Hutch" and part "The Odd Couple."
When financial wheeler dealer David Hirshon (Steve Coogan, "24 Hour Party People," "Hamlet 2") comes under suspicion however, Gamble's got a bead on a dozen scaffolding violations and springs into action while Hoitz rolls his eyes wondering when they'll ever break away from being known as "The Other Guys."
Having successfully collaborated with director-writer McKay several times in the past, most notably on "Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy" and "Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby," Ferrell keeps the winning streak intact while drawing out Mark Wahlberg's untapped funny side in "The Other Guys."
Directed and written (with Chris Henchy) by Adam McKay, this fits right in with such Ferrell drivel as Taladega Nights (2006) and Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy (2004), both written by McKay.
Like the previous movies Ferrell has collaborated on with writer-director Adam McKay, "Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy," ''Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby" and (with lesser success) "Step Brothers," ''The Other Guys" comes from a realistic, often understated place, which makes the wild moments pop out that much more.
He cowrote the script with first-time director Adam McKay, a veteran of Saturday Night Live who has gone on to director Ferrell in Step Brothers (2008), The Other Guys (2010), and Anchorman 2 (2013), and he clearly understands his own comedic appeal.
This, in turn, led to more goofball roles in "The Producers," "Talladega Nights," "Blades of Glory," "Step Brothers," and "The Other Guys," interspersed with occasional warmhearted characters in "Elf" and, his best film to date, "Stranger Than Fiction."
McKay's notoriously freewheeling sensibilities, used relatively well in Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy and Step Brothers, prove a consistent and utter impediment to one's enjoyment of the film, as scene after scene has been infused with a loose, obviously improvised vibe that's ultimately nothing short of disastrous.
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This time, there's an actual story line, mimicking the formula of the "Lethal Weapon"/"48 Hrs." genre of action comedies, and Ferrell is playing an eager, polite, sensible man -- more Buddy the elf than Ron Burgundy.
And in the end, it beats another Lethal Weapon.
Both homage and raspberry to the "Lethal Weapon"-style buddy-cop pictures of years past, "The Other Guys" succeeds by delivering just what its target audience wants and expects.
With comedy being one of the most difficult arts to accomplish in moviedom, that makes The Other Guys a breakthrough on the level of Lethal Weapon or Pineapple Express.
When financial wheeler dealer David Hirshon (Steve Coogan, "24 Hour Party People," "Hamlet 2") comes under suspicion however, Gamble's got a bead on a dozen scaffolding violations and springs into action while Hoitz rolls his eyes wondering when they'll ever break away from being known as "The Other Guys."