Make room for The Other Guys

Slam, bam and please excuse the massive property damage. Highsmith and Danson are on the scene and cleaning up the streets—two badass crime fighters who solve cases with style and garner the love of a city. But this movie isn’t about Highsmith and Danson. It’s about the other guys who fight crime—the normal, boring everyday other guys.

Allen Gamble and Terry Hoitz are two cops partnered up for deskwork. Gamble is a mild-mannered accounting detective, protecting the city from building permit violations and financial discrepancies, while Hoitz is a cop cut from a different cloth. He finds himself working a desk job in his precinct after a rather significant screw-up on the streets—however, he can run, shoot and fight as well as any other action star around.

It would seem these two guys are total opposites. I wonder what kind of quirky hijinx would occur if they were thrown together?

The Other Guys is a buddy cop movie that mocks the genre of buddy cop movies. While other cops are playing out scenes from Lethal Weapon, Gamble and Hoitz—played by Will Ferrell and Mark Wahlberg, respectively—are calmly working their own case regarding a building permit violation, but happen to stumble upon a much bigger crime at hand. They then embark upon a case that takes the two ordinary detectives along the path more apt for their action-packed counterparts.

This movie will surprise you. I found myself impressed with seemingly little things including some of the camera work and shots in the film—particularly a building jump scene and a scene in a bar that looked amazing, while also very humorously contributing to the movie.

Ferrell pulls off his punchlines and antics with ease as he has proven to do so well in the past. In general, when you watch a Will Ferrell flick, you can expect a certain Will Ferrell style of character and delivery. You can expect no less here, though Ferrell does take on his docile and good-natured character well, successfully merging it with his comic style.

Wahlberg does take steps outside his usual terrain of films into the comedic scene from time to time, and with success such as with I ♥Huckabees. He chose well again when signing on for The Other Guys.

At times The Other Guys borders on going too far with over-the-top antics and quirky characters, but narrowly avoids verging beyond comedic and into the absurd. This is no surprise given that the movie is co-written by Adam McKay whose resume includes a number of Saturday Night Live sketches, including Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy and Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby, if that is any indication of the film’s brand of humor. But The Other Guys changes things up a bit seeming slightly less over-the-top from McKay’s previous work.

Perhaps the most intriguing aspect of the movie is a level of unexpected intelligence not often found in many comedies. You can watch this film, garner some laughs and have a good time, but the plot of the movie involves commentary on certain aspects of our modern society—the case Gamble and Hoitz end up working involves certain financial crimes and fiscal bad behavior. And just in case you didn’t follow it well enough through the film, you may find the end credits rather educational, so stay seated after the movie ends.