Review: "The Other Guys" Is The Bromance of The Summer
By CBS News' Karina Mitchell
NEW YORK (CBS) They're not exactly considered New York's finest: Will Ferrell ("Step Brothers", "Anchorman") as Detective Allen Gamble, a touchy-feely forensic accountant and Mark Wahlberg ("Date Night", "The Departed") as a trigger-happy Detective Terry Hoitz.
Will Ferrell, Mark Wahlber: Partners in Comedy
But they team up in a Columbia release that can only be described as the bromance comedy of the summer.
As Ferrell movies go, "The Other Guys" is nowhere near as funny as his his classic "Anchorman", or even "Talladega Nights", but it is funnier than "Semi Pro" or "Step Brothers".
The two play a couple of nerdy officers with desk jobs at the station house. Gamble is content wielding a calculator instead of a fire arm, while Hoitz, removed from active duty after an insanely comedic mishap involving Derek Jeter, is itching to get back into the fray.
The misfits are polar opposites and the antagonistic, bordering on loathsome, way Hoitz treats his "partner" makes for much of the movie's hilarity. Wahlberg is an excellent straight man, allowing Ferrell to do what he always does - indulge in unimpeded riotous humor.
Director Adam McKay's spoof on the '80s cop film genre is ably aided and abetted by a first-rate performance from Michael Keaton, who plays Gene Maunch, a dismissive precinct chief, moonlighting as a store manager at Bed, Bath & Beyond so he can put his bi-sexual son through college.
Equally good is Eva Mendes, who plays Ferrell's smart, sex-bomb wife and who can't get enough of her nerdy husband. Giving the film a jolt right out of the gate are brilliant, but all too short, cameos from Samuel L. Jackson and Dwayne Johnson, playing precinct hotshots, who meet a ridiculous, untimely end.
The humdrum duo get the chance to become heroes when a paper trail leads them to the perfect case - a Ponzi scheme of Bernie Madoff proportion concocted by a corrupt investor (Steve Coogan).
McKay really has his finger on the pulse of what gets New Yorkers riled and the parodies he makes definitely hit home! Naturally, the two bumbling cops don't see eye to eye on how to proceed.
But the humor starts to wane when McKay must move the film towards solving the overly convoluted crime. The plot and the obligatory car and helicopter chases (albeit with a Prius in the forefront) are overly clich���©. These formulaic scenes would definitely have benefitted from tighter editing.
Still, few would argue the film has its moments. The backdrop of New York amid wild car chases and explosions, coupled with the crazy yin-yang relationship of Ferrell and Wahlberg, make this a humorous outing to the movies. As with all Ferrell films, don't expect any kind of logic.
MPAA Rating : PG-13
107 minutes