Running time: 107 minutes
Starring: Will Ferrell, Mark Wahlberg, Michael Keaton, Steve Coogan, Eve Mendes, Samuel L. Jackson, Dwayne Johnson
Rating 7 out of 10
When Will Ferrell teams up with director Adam McKay, funny things tend to result. Beginning with the TV show Saturday Night Live, the two have collaborated on numerous projects including Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy, Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby and Step Brothers. It’s clearly a winning partnership, with The Other Guys being the latest evidence. Possessed of an almost surreal quality, its absurdist humour is matched by a level of originality that is as refreshing as it is hilarious.
At one point NYPD officer Terry Hoitz (Mark Wahlberg) threatens his partner Allen Gamble (Will Ferrell), “If I was a lion and you were a tuna, I would swim out in the middle of the ocean and eat you.” Gamble’s long and reasoned response completely disarms Hoitz, prompting Gamble to conclude, “Did that go the way you thought it was gonna go? No!” It’s a line that perfectly encapsulates The Other Guys, which makes a point of rarely going the way you expect it to go.
The buddy cop movie is hardly an original concept, so to come up with something as inventive as this is an achievement. Gamble and Hoitz are an ill-matched pair. The timid Gamble is a forensic accountant who prefers the safety of a desk job to the rough and tough aspects of field work. “There’s no explosions at my desk,” he explains. The hot-tempered Hoitz is the exact opposite. Confined to a desk job after inadvertently shooting the New York Yankees’ star baseball player Derek Jeter, he’s desperate to get back to the action. “I am a peacock. You got to let me fly,” he implores his boss, Captain Gene (Michael Keaton).
When the squad’s two “rock star” heroes, Highsmith (Samuel L. Jackson) and Danson (Dwayne Johnson), are killed in the line of duty, “There’s a hole in New York City that needs to be filled” and Hoitz sees it as his opportunity to fill it. The only problem is persuading his reluctant partner to leave the safety of the office. But when business tycoon David Ershon (Steve Coogan) commits a petty scaffolding permit violation, Gamble’s intervention sets him and his partner on an eventful and unexpected trail involving corporate fraud.
By Ferrell’s standards, it’s a relatively low-key performance, but one that makes for an interesting contrast opposite the intensity of Wahlberg. As he showed in The Departed, Wahlberg has a gift for making threatening behavior funny. What makes The Other Guys refreshing is its quirky sensibility. It’s filled with running gags that become like motifs. Despite being a prize dork, Gamble has a ridiculously hot wife (Eve Mendes) who he refers to as “The old ball and chain” and who he continually runs down in the presence of an incredulous Hoitz. There’s an equally bizarre recurring joke involving the police captain and the lyrics of the band TLC. It’s a constant reminder of how funny Michael Keaton is and how much his presence on screen has been sorely missed.
The end credits feature a litany of alarming facts about the economy and corporate corruption. Their appearance seems at odds with the rather crazed mood of all that had preceded it. It proves to be the final surprise in what had been a film filled with them.
Kevin Murphy
