THE OTHER GUYS (2010)

Like a peacock, this movie spreads it's wings and flies...

The guys who brought you the hilarious Step Brothers (2008) are back, and this time sibling rivalry is out the door for a more “serious” take on the buddy cop side of things. If you say to yourself “Nah, it’s okay, I’ve seen Cop Out…” than slap yourself in the face and realize this film is much, much better than that wholly unsatisfying ‘Kevin Smith is part of the cool kids club’ piece of junk (save for Tracy Morgan who may only been entertaining due to his hilariously dumb 30 Rock alter ego Tracy Jordan).

With Other Guys it’s much different as Will Ferrell and new funny man Mark Wahlberg take on a bunch of fat cat CEOs who are aiming to steal $32 billion from a lottery company. Holtz (Wahlberg) is itching to get out of the office and out of the shadows of their station’s two top detectives (played hilariously by Dwayne Johnson and Samuel L. Jackson), while Gamble (Ferrell) is fine staying indoors where it’s safe and snatching up every bit of paperwork he can. Once the opportunity to get some action (as they say) does arise, they seem to almost instantly screw up. It seems they eventually screw up so much they find their way out of the proverbial paper bag and stumble onto those pesky CEO’s plan – a plan, by the way, that’s just alright and along with all the chatter about it from both police and criminal alike, is about the only thing that slows this pretty funny comedy down and maybe makes it 15 minutes too long. That’s me nitpicking though.

The rest of the film is right on par with the quirky behaviour I fell in love with during this team’s other films like Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy (2004). The wackiness of it all lends itself well to this film, and it never really seems out of place. It rarely gets tiresome and if it weren’t for those pesky ‘we have to talk about the story to keep the film going‘ moments, this film would have been hella funny. There are lots of instances where you will look at the person next to you as you’re laughing and say “What the what?” because it’s so ridiculous. It’s better in a movie like this than in something that’s supposed to be serious.

I think the reason I liked Other Guys so much, was the presence of usually more serious actors like Wahlberg or Michael Keaton (who plays the police Captain). The fact that Keaton here is just as serious as he was reading lines as Batman makes for a hell of funny thing when he keeps on spouting titles of TLC songs without knowing who they even are. The same goes for Wahlberg when he keeps comparing himself to a peacock who “needs to get out and fly” – even though he knows they don’t. It doesn’t matter though.

The Other Guys gets a definite open door from me and is right up there with Date Night and Hot Tub Time Machine as being the funniest movie of the year. Sure it has its flaws, but maybe that’s why the funny parts are so funny.

*Stills courtesy of Columbia Pictures