2010, Action, Adam McKay, Comedy, Dwayne Johnson, Eva Mendes, Mark Wahlberg, Michael Keaton, Rudy Youngblood, Samuel L. Jackson, The Other Guys, Will Ferrell

The Other Guys (2010)

Leave a comment

the other guys movie posterIt’s not going to get on many Top 10 lists (especially when released in 2010, the best year for movie releases in my lifetime), but The Other Guys is fun. One of my only complaints about the great year for movies that was 2010 was that it lacked a great horror film and a great comedy. Though I have not seen it, I thought Get Him To The Greek might be the comedy movie I was looking for. While that is a movie I will still watch, it no longer has the potential to be the top comedy of 2010. I believe that ranking belongs to The Other Guys.

The movie stars Will Ferrell (Old School, Anchorman) and Mark Wahlberg (The Fighter, Invincible) as desk cops. They mop up and do the paperwork while two other cops in the department, Dwayne Johnson (The Rundown, The Scorpion King) and Samuel L. Jackson (Pulp Fiction, Coach Carter), are out cleaning up the streets of New York City and looking and acting like movie stars in the process. When the lead cop positions in the force open up, however, Detective Terry Hoitz (Wahlberg) thinks it’s a perfect opportunity for him and partner Allen Gamble (Ferrell) to step up. Hoitz and Gamble each have their own hilarious story for why they are working behind the desk instead of doing honest cop work out on the streets. Hoitz wants to be out there, while Gamble is far more reluctant. Gamble, however, has a man crush on Hoitz and is willing to follow his partner’s lead on everything.

Soon Hoitz and Gamble, under the direction of police chief Gene Mauch (Michael Keaton – Beetlejuice, Batman), are following a money scandal that may involve the city lottery. The plot isn’t important. We know in a comedy such as this that the two are going to follow some false leads, and get themselves in a good heap of trouble, only to wiggle their way out of the situation and save the day. That’s what is going to happen. If you don’t see that coming after the first ten minutes, perhaps this is your first buddy cop movie before. If you are hoping for a good story, you aren’t going to get one. But you will laugh plenty.

The Other Guys isn’t a movie like Wedding Crashers, There’s Something About Mary, or American Pie, where your side will hurt from laughing so much. The laughs won’t be that hard. You will have a smile on your face most of the time, though. Ferrell does a great job of not going “over the top,” as in many of his movies. And the chemistry between him and Wahlberg is terrific. They play off one another very well. Keaton, with his dry sense of humor, is great as well. Mendes, who plays Gamble’s knockout wife Sheila, is well cast. One of the running themes in the movie is that beautiful women fall for Ferrell’s Gamble. So when Hoitz calls Sheila “super hot,” Gamble doesn’t get mad that his partner is looking at his wife. Instead, he says, “Come on, Terry. My wife is cute but not hot.” It’s a pretty original idea and one that works very well.

Plot 6/10
Character Development 9.5/10
Character Chemistry 8.5/10
Acting 8.5/10
Screenplay 7.5/10
Directing  8.5/10
Cinematography 7.5/10
Sound 9/10
Hook and Reel 8/10 (you’ll laugh early and often)
Universal Relevance 6.5/10
79.5%

Movies You Might Like If You Liked This Movie

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.