Henry Saw: The Other Guys

A quick look at Adam McKay and Will Ferrel's new comedy The Other Guys which is quite funny...



NYPD Detectives Christopher Danson and P.K. Highsmith (Dwayne Johnson and Samuel L. Jackson) are the baddest and most beloved cops in New York City. They don't get tattoos - other men get tattoos of them. Two desks over and one back, sit Detectives Allen Gamble (Will Ferrell) and Terry Hoitz (Mark Wahlberg). You've seen them in the background of photos of Danson and Highsmith, out of focus and eyes closed. They're not heroes - they're "the Other Guys." But every cop has his or her day and soon Gamble and Hoitz stumble into a seemingly innocuous case no other detective wants to touch that could turn into New York City's biggest crime. It's the opportunity of their lives, but do these guys have the right stuff?



The Other Guys is McKay and Ferrel's fourth film together, they previously teamed up for Anchorman, Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby, and Step Brothers, and I would argue it is their most successful movie. That's not to say it's their funniest, Anchorman is more quotable and has more memorable scenes, but The Other Guys holds together the best. Anchored by the most restrained performance Ferrel has ever given in one of his silly comedies, and Mark Wahlberg doing a wonderful send-up of his own overly intense persona, The Other Guys is the cop movie parody that Cop Out and Starsky and Hutch wanted to be.

The Other Guys has some great little moments, whether it is Sam Jackson and Dwayne Johnson's final scene, a highly enjoyable Derek Jeter cameo, Wahlberg's interaction with Will Ferrel's wife Eva Mendes, or Michael Keaton continuous references to a certain R&B group...there's a lot to like here.



The flaw with the film, as with many comedies, is the last third of the film. The comedy starts to drain out of the movie as they feel the need to wrap-up the unsatisfying and uninteresting Bernie Madoff based plot. I understand that a comedic movie should not be a series of skits with out a plot-line, that's my main problem with Anchorman, but a comedy should never stop being funny just because it needs to wrap up a dull storyline (I'm looking at you Wedding Crashers).



All in all I would recommend The Other Guys. We don't review many comedies here on Pitaoe, they are not much fun to write about, and humor and comedic taste is so subjective. I wanted to get the word out about this one. Critics mostly ignored it, and its only done modestly well at the box office given the pedigree, but it is well worth a watch. You don't need to see it in theaters, but give it a shot (this one might work well as an airplane movie), and I hope you find it as funny as I did.

Grade: B+

Best Scene (or line): What someone calls Derek Jeter after finding out what Mark Wahlberg did to him...