Movie Review: The Other Guys
By Megan Carroll
The Other Guys is a silly buddy-cop-action-comedy that makes you feel like you are riding in the car with someone who just learned how to drive a stick shift: the movie never really achieves a smooth ride.
With the help of narrator Ice-T, we are introduced to two mismatched New York City detectives, Allen Gamble (Will Ferrell) and Terry Hoitz (Mark Wahlberg), who are trying to fill the super-action shoes of their doomed police partner predecessors (played by Samuel L. Jackson and Dwayne Johnson). The problem is that Gamble doesn’t want to leave his desk and Hoitz is bound to his by past mistakes. They soon stumble into an evil plot that involves the abuses of Wall Street and a Bernie Madoff-inspired character, David Ershon (Steve Coogan), is at the center of it all.
This is the fourth time that director Adam McKay and Will Ferrell have worked together (following Anchorman, Talladega Nights and Step Brothers). Their attempt to educate the audience on the ills of Wall Street falls apart by the middle of the film and we are left with a ton of tiny sub-plots that distract the audience from the plot line … if there is one. The point they were trying to make was a good one – how badly the financial elite have screwed over the common folk in the last decade – but because of the utter lack of focus it is lost, never to be found.
The hardest thing to get over during this film is that the brilliantly funny moments shine a harsh spot light on the uninspired moments. You are left feeling a bit awkward because you want to like this film for those parts, but can not because most of the film falls flat. The actors seem to have the same idea as they clumsily wait for the next zinger to come into play.
I wanted to like this film. I wish I liked this film. It had the potential to be as hilarious as some of its predecessors, but was bogged down with an utter lack of focus. The Other Guys would be a wonderful DVD rental on a rainy day and with such a great cast, that’s a disappointment.
