MOVIE REVIEW: 'The Other Guys'

Movie review in the Friday, Aug. 6 Oregonian....

As far as I know, "The Other Guys" is the only spoof of buddy-cop action movies that also happens to be furiously angry about inflated CEO salaries, Bernie Madoff and the federal bailouts of AIG and Goldman Sachs.

Wait. I should probably start over. That makes "The Other Guys" sound like a Michael Moore flick. It is, in fact, the latest epically absurd, slightly overlong, pretty damn funny Will Ferrell comedy directed and co-written by Adam McKay ("Anchorman," "Talladega Nights," "Step Brothers"). I thought "Step Brothers" was a bit of a coast for this team after the instant-classic insanity of "Anchorman" and the instant-classic dinner scene from "Talladega Nights" -- so I'm happy to report that "Other Guys" finds McKay back to trying something wildly ambitious with his comedy, and largely succeeding.

The film starts with an over-the-top buddy-cop action scene that's only one or two tweaks sillier than your average Michael Bay set piece. NYPD supercops Highsmith (Samuel L. Jackson) and Danson (Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson) drop wisecracks while they do over $10 million in property damage to catch a couple of petty crooks. What they don't do is paperwork. That task falls to "the other guys" -- desk-bound detectives including forensic accountant Gamble (Ferrell) and disgraced rageaholic Hoitz (Mark Wahlberg, mostly playing it straight to brilliant effect).

After Highsmith and Danson are sidelined (in what may be the single funniest movie shot I've seen in years), the race is on among the lesser cops to fill the department's rogue-hero slot. And while the buttoned-up Gamble isn't interested in this contest -- which sends his partner Hoitz into hilarious fits of screaming consternation -- Gamble's investigation of a billionaire's scaffolding permit drags the duo into a massive case incorporating aspects of every financial scandal of the last few years -- as well as kidnapping, helicopters, car chases, femme fatales and board-room gunplay, all of it served with vintage-Zucker seasoning, lest we be less than entertained.

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 "Anchorman"-style 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." (Mind you, McKay doesn't create anything nearly as transcendently weird and beautiful as Landis did in 1980, but man, I love him for trying.) "The Other Guys" is the sort of movie that contains exploding helicopters on driving ranges, Will Ferrell monologuing some funny nonsense about a school of tuna fighting a lion while repressing an inner demon he calls "Gator," Mark Wahlberg mistaking a ballet studio for a strip club, Michael Keaton as a police chief who unconsciously quotes TLC lyrics, hobos fornicating in a Prius, and some clever out-of-nowhere end-credits infographics explaining just how screwed up our financial system has become -- all of it periodically narrated by Ice-T. In other words, it isn't any sort of previous movie at all. The last comedy I can think of that felt remotely like this in terms of scope might be "Tropic Thunder."

If I have one beef with the picture -- and it's minor -- it's that "The Other Guys" feels like it runs out of steam a bit toward the end; I wasn't laughing as hard at the end as I was at the beginning, and I think that's a function of the film's overstuffed length rather than any particular decline in joke quality. (It may also be a byproduct of McKay's struggle to make high-stakes financial skullduggery comprehensible and funny, particularly toward the end of the picture when the plot comes to the fore -- a challenge he's discussed in interviews.) But I also suspect the movie's ambition, strangeness and overwhelming generosity of content is going to lend it a strong rewatch value; I wouldn't be surprised if it enjoys a long home-video afterlife.

I also hope it inspires someone to make an actual, unironic buddy-cop action flick with The Rock and Samuel L. Jackson, because personally I'd really like to see that.

_____

(107 min., rated PG-13) Grade: B

'The Other Guys' (The Oregonian, Friday, Aug. 6, 2010)

Comments

[alice gustafson]

I just walked out of Other Guys after your rating of B plus. I am a senior and am shocked that you would rate this violent, shocking language with that grade.
What movie would you send your Mother to these days.
The theatre I went to had all violent action with no redeeming features and filled with kids so I got my money back. Sad to see mature adults left out of the movie experience. No wonder they are going broke. I would like your thoughts. Thanks