Adam McKay’s The Other Guys is two-thirds of a hilarious buddy cop spoof, unloading constant, quotable absurdity before lazily repeating those same bits into early retirement.
Highsmith (Samuel L. Jackson) and Danson (Dwayne Johnson) are your typical supercops, driving muscle cars, clinging to roofs and blasting perps in the pursuit of justice. But when their fall from grace creates an opening, it’s time for “the other guys” to step up. (Luckily, that doesn’t mean Cop Out bores Bruce Willis and Tracy Morgan.)
Will Ferrell is a Prius-driving police accountant named Allen Gamble, and his partner, Terry Hoitz (Mark Wahlberg), is a loose-cannon sidelined by a mishap at a Yankees game. In the shadow of Highsmith and Danson they are just a pair of paper-pushing desk jockeys, but with the force’s all stars out of the picture Gamble and Hoitz are, well, they’re still a couple of screw ups.
The duo immediately settles into a dumb cop, dumber cop rhythm, consistently riffing at the office or in transit to another bungled crime scene. Ferrell’s quick-witted comebacks are unleashed from another of his goofball characters, this time a passive buffoon with a seedy past and a gorgeous wife (Eva Mendes). Wahlberg lands several straight-faced punchlines as Ferrell’s aggressive counterpart, and seems surprisingly aware of when to interject his tough guy bit and when to stand aside when Ferrell gets rolling. Of course, individual enjoyment level will depend on each’s personal opinion of Ferrell’s familiar shtick.
Their broad, largely improvisational repartee is spliced with plenty of slapstick humor, such as a funeral brawl spoken only in whispers, and silly sight gags involving a scene-stealing Michael Keaton as their captain. The introduction of Steve Coogan as a shady tycoon keeps the comedy fresh (for a time), bringing a layer of British wit to the back-and-forth.
The odd couple bumbles their way through uncompromising bodyguards, bum orgies and hordes of angry, ripped-off investors, making pit stops to meet each of Gamble’s inexplicably beautiful flames or unravel clues on the corporate scam.
But, unable to sustain the energy and rapid-fire laughs from the hilarious first act, the film strays into buddy cop genre conventions and a contrived plot about a Ponzi scheme. Parody or not, McKay isn’t quite suited to direct action sequences, full of fiery chaos and crunching cars, and the recession-relevant money scandal bogs down in the minutiae. The wheels fly off in the third act, collapsing under the weight of its countless characters, and the once enjoyable comedy finishes by weakly flogging callbacks to earlier gags.
Because nothing says funny like statistics; the film’s soberly serious and wildly mismatched end credits play like a PowerPoint presentation at a birthday party, an appropriately dull conclusion to 110-minutes of tapering merriment.
The fourth feature film to stem from the “bromance” between Ferrell and McKay isn’t quite as funny as Anchorman, but snuggles nicely with Step Brothers and Talladega Nights as a flawed but funny collaboration.
3 out of 5.
