*** (three stars)
There is not one reason in the world you could possible give to me that would convince me there was anyone, anywhere that needed to have even one more buddy cop movie. After suffering through Kevin Smith’s dispassionate and criminally unfunny misfire, “Cop Out” a few weeks ago, I would almost downright challenge anyone who believes that one more buddy cop movie in the world was a necessary thing to have. Well, I am here to inform you that Director Adam McKay just nearly pulled it off with a sizable improvement to the genre, “The Other Guys,” his new comedy and collaboration with Will Ferrell.
Opening with kind of hysterically overwrought and cataclysmic action sequence that Michael Bay salivates over and takes way too seriously, we are introduced to cavalier celebrity supercops Highsmith and Danson (perfectly played by Samuel L. Jackson and Dwayne Johnson) at the conclusion of yet another heroic adventure that of course, costs the city $12 million dollars from the obligatory uber-damages. Highsmith and Danson are the heroes of the city and the rock star idols to their precinct brothers in arms (i.e. “the other guys”), all of which exist in their mountainous shadows. Sitting quietly at his desk in awe is Allen Gamble (Will Ferrell) a severely straight laced, comically gullible and decidedly earnest Forensics accountant with a predilection for the music of the Little River Band. Seated and seething heavily across from him is Terry Hoitz (an excellent Mark Wahlberg), a disgraced, resentful, and hair-triggered tempered cop, just itching for his chance to have the limelight Highsmith and Danson have long commanded.
After another high flying escapade, that permanently puts Highsmith and Danson out of commission, Hoitz desperately wants to seize the opportunity to take their places as citywide heroes by forcing the mild-mannered Gamble away from the sanctuary of his desk and into the streets. Eventually, the twosome combine their skills to bring down a white collar crime conspiracy involving crooked billionaire David Ershon (Steve Coogan).
For a sizable amount of its running time, perhaps the film’s first half, “The Other Guys” is a rock solid, enormously entertaining and consistently funny comedy. McKay keeps his film zooming along at a breakneck pace, ensuring the comedy and the action are moving along swimmingly. The film, during this section, is so clearly focused. The narrative is disciplined and able to interweave satirical social-political commentary involving 21-century journalism and capitalism in addition to riffing on buddy cop movies. Nothing feels out of place and all of the elements work together so effortlessly to bring about a highly enthusiastic whole.
Will Ferrell and Mark Wahlberg make a perfect comedy duo as the genre’s pre-requisite mismatched cops. Ferrell dials down the crazy just a bit to create a character so guileless, sincere and diligent to his desk duties that at times he reminded me of Charles Martin Smith’s accountant character from Director Brian De Palma’s “The Untouchables” (1987). That character doggedly (and also at almost high levels of geekness) desired to bring Al Capone down via charges of tax evasion and Ferrell’s Allen Gamble is a man cut from the exact same cloth. As Hoitz just wants to find the glamorous find of guns, hookers and drugs, Gamble remains riveted to zoning violations committed by billionaire Ershon. And yet, as with so many cop movies that have come before, our hero Allen Gamble has a dark side…and a hilarious one at that…which consistently threatens to become unleashed.
Will Ferrell’s loyalty to his character and his history is so strong and unshakable. He never blinks or loses any moment of comic potential. Again, Ferrell reminds you of how skilled he is as an actor. Will Ferrell is surely one of our most likable screen talents and without a mean-spirited bone on display in any of his films. However immensely talented he is, I do think he has skated by for a long while with his likability as he has played a part in too many major Hollywood releases where the material is dangerously under par. “The Other Guys” allows Ferrell to use the best of his gifts with a character that is instantly entertaining and ultimately, endearing.
Mark Wahlberg is an actor whose fullness of talent arrives depending on the material he is given. When Martin Scorsese used him in “The Departed” (2006), Wahlberg gave a blistering, crackerjack of a performance. When Writer/Director David O. Russell utilized his skills in the Iraq war satire “Three Kings” (1999) and the philosophical metaphysical comedy “I Heart Huckabees”(2004), he delivered the goods. In Peter Jackson's adaptation of "The Lovely Bones" from last year, Wahlberg gave a performance of crippling sensitivity. And my praise for his work as porn star Dirk Diggler in Writer/Director Paul Thomas Anderson’s “Boogie Nights” (1997) will never cease as he showed that in the right hands, he is an actor to behold. With “The Other Guys,” he proves his mettle again, this time with broad comedy, as he makes a perfect foil for Ferrell. Wahlberg’s Terry Hoitz is the nearly unhinged straight-man, a cauldron of excessive reactionary exasperation and his explosive rants are often a scream. Wahlberg also gets to show off his ample gifts with more subtle comic shadings, especially during a wonderful sequence when Hoitz arrives at Gamble’s home for dinner, to find Gamble’s “plain,” “ball n’ chain” wife is actually the dazzlingly eye-catching Dr. Sarah Gamble (Eva Mendes). Wahlberg’s endless disbelief that his dweeb of a partner could be married to this knockout and that the dweeb can easily and constantly speak so disparagingly of her never wears thin and he always seems to find new ways of presenting the same incredulous reactions.
At this time, I must also find time to give praise to Damon Wayans Jr. and Rob Riggle, who portray two more “other guys” in the precinct, also wanting their stab at glory and who find new and interesting ways to keep Gamble and Hoitz under their collective thumbs. And how great it was to see Michael Keaton again, an actor I have loved ever since his firecracker of a debut in Ron Howard’s morgue attendant/pimp comedy “Night Shift” (1982). His on-screen appearances are so scant and while he in not featured heavily in “The Other Guys,” he certainly makes the most out of his supporting role as Gene Mauch, the frustrated police Captain, Bed, Bath & Beyond manager and closet TLC fan.
So, there I was, having a great time at the movies and then, “The Other Guys:” reached its second half and hit a massive pothole. I must rewind just a tad to McKay’s debut feature with Ferrell, the highly celebrated “Anchorman: The Legend Of Ron Burgundy” (2004). Lest I risk alienation from you, dear readers, I have to boldly state that I am not a fan of that film. I know it made a fortune at the box office. I know that so many millions of people love that movie and can quote it any time, anywhere…and I celebrate you. But, I just didn’t like it. I don’t think it is a bad movie. Just a shockingly inconsistent one that completely abandoned its original ideas and strong beginning for a collection of flights of fancy that never add up, pay off or lead anywhere. For me, it was a movie that just could not decide what it wanted to be. Was it going to be a 1970s set sexual politics/office comedy? Or was it going to be an undisciplined slapstick comedy? Or was it going to be a romp for McKay, Ferrell and their comedic friends? How did that movie begin in a newsroom and conclude with gladiator fights and talking zoo animals? Whatever it was when it began was decidedly and sloppily not what it was at the end and it made for a tiring, frustrating and unfunny experience.
McKay’s “Talladega Nights: The Ballad Of Ricky Bobby” (2006), suffered a similar problem as the film's first third was a knockout and then, the film just recycled jokes and lost its momentum, making for a film that ended up being more than a little boring. With "Step Brothers" (2008), it seemed that McKay had finally found his footing as a filmmaker and discovered the discipline he needed to keep his narrative from running off of the rails altogether.
However, with “The Other Guys,” McKay just cannot seem to keep himself in control. As with “Anchorman” and “Talladega Nights,” he loses his narrative discipline and focus, which makes the film’s second half terribly sluggish and padded too heavily with non-sequiturs, blind alleys and comedic dead ends. It felt as if Mckay and his collaborators wrote half of a completed screenplay and just began shooting, hoping to find their way during the filming process and it shows. The tight pacing of the film’s first half evaporates and we are left with scenes that drag and drag and drag. A scene set in a dance studio, extended scenes between Gamble and his wife and sequences involving Allen Gamble’s Mother-in-Law do contain funny bits here and there, but they are all superfluous.
Most confounding is the end credit section, which details a series of white-collar crime statistics. It was an addition that felt terribly out of place and was as if we walked in to see a goofy Will Ferrell movie and exited from a Michael Moore agitprop experience, complete with Rage Against The Machine blaring through the theater speakers. Like “The Book Of Eli” and “Kick-Ass,” the film very closely became a disingenuous experience as it seemed to be expressing itself as a film that is more serious and important than it intended to be or actually is. Nonetheless, McKay somehow always found a way to reign everything back in place for fits, starts and genuinely big laughs only to lose control again and become lost in yet another overlong sequence that should have been excised to exist solely as a DVD deleted scene.
I am not certain if McKay is just onto something on a narrative and comedic level that I do not fully understand. But, to give McKay the benefit of the doubt, perhaps he is trying to capture some of that stream of consciousness, absurdest comedy that has been unequalled and untouched since the days of Monty Python’s Flying Circus. If so, I applaud him for wanting to scale to those extremely tall comedic heights. If not, and he is just inattentive and slapdash, then he needs to shape up and remain committed for the entire process and not for the first stages until he grows bored. McKay’s movie making style so far is akin to a child playing in a roomful of toys, unwilling to clean up what has been played with before moving on, leaving a disaster from one end to another.
To be fair, "The Other Guys" is far from being anything resembling a disaster. Even at its most tiring, there are still laughs to be found and that weak second half certainly does not negate the strong first half. That said, why can’t McKay just pick a movie to make and then, make that movie as best as he possibly can?! He seems to be content trying to cram ten different movies plus whatever appears in his head on the day of shooting together. That may be great for him but for me, that style or lack thereof makes for a more than ragged viewing experience I am not anxious to take over and again from him.
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