An action-comedy about two mismatched New York City detectives, Will Ferrell and Mark Wahlberg, who hadly see any action – one is happy to sit at his desk and file the paperwork, while the other has been put on the bench after a public incident involving a baseball game and his trigger-happy finger.
But when an opportunity arises to take down a fraudulent billionaire (Steve Coogan), they attempt to step up like the city's much loved top cops (Samuel L. Jackson and Dwayne Johnson). From the director of Anchorman and Talladega Nights.
Will Ferrell and director Adam McKay have struck gold before with Anchorman and Talladega Nights, so there’s every reason to think they’d reverse Ferrell’s recent slump in both quality and box office takings with The Other Guys.
The idea of Ferrell and Mark Wahlberg playing office-bound cops who do admin rather than blowing stuff up is inspired, particularly since it gives Ferrell a chance to do more than his usual man-boy shtick. Then there’s the often unintentionally funny Wahlberg who seemingly acts as if he’s in comedies all the time anyway.
They’re surrounded by a great supporting cast including the likes of Michael Keaton, who makes a welcome return to comedy; heroes of the department Samuel L. Jackson and The Rock; Eva Mendes as Ferrell’s wife whose hotness he seems blind to; and slimy investment broker Steve Coogan.
Unfortunately The Other Guys is less than the sum of these amazing parts, with Coogan perhaps summing up the problem. He’s asked to play it pretty straight for much of the film, veering off only occasionally on funny tangents in its latter stages – tangents that come from most of the cast at one point or another and ultimately detract from the film.
Unlike Pineapple Express, which featured stoner laughs within an action movie setting, or the outright parody of Hot Fuzz, the balance of action and humour is off here and by dialing down the moments of ridiculousness from his other films with Ferrell, McKay has made them all the more glaringly odd when they do occur.
By Steve Newall, Flicks.co.nz
4 stars just for the Tuna x Lion scene! I found the Will Ferrell & Mark Wahlberg double-act hilarious & the running gag that beautiful woman can't resist Ferrell's geek actually works - thank's to Wahlberg's incredulity. Actually, the dullest bit is the start, but once Sam Jackson & Dwayne "We know you as The Rock so forget trying to establish your name as Dwayne" Johnson (spoiler alert) die - yes I said DIE! Oh hell, don't bother with my review - here's that TUNA vs LION dualogue in full! Terry (WAHLBERG): No, I don't like you. I think you're a fake cop. The sound of your p*ss hitting the urinal, it sounds feminine. If you were in the wild, I would attack you, even if you weren't in my food chain. I would go out of my way to attack you. If I were a lion and you were a tuna, I would swim out in the middle of the ocean and freaking eat you and then I'd bang your tuna girlfriend. Allen (FERRELL): OK, first off: a lion, swimming in the ocean. Lions don't like water. If you placed it near a river or some sort of fresh water source, that make sense. But you find yourself in the ocean, 20 foot wave, I'm assuming off the coast of South Africa, coming up against a full grown 800 pound tuna with his 20 or 30 friends, you lose that battle, you lose that battle 9 times out of 10. And guess what, you've wandered into our school of tuna and we now have a taste of lion. We've talked to ourselves. We've communicated and said 'You know what, lion tastes good, let's go get some more lion'. We've developed a system to establish a beach-head and aggressively hunt you and your family and we will corner your pride, your children, your offspring. Terry: How you gonna do that? Allen: We will construct a series of breathing apparatus with kelp. We will be able to trap certain amounts of oxygen. It's not gonna be days at a time. An hour? Hour forty-five? No problem. That will give us enough time to figure out where you live, go back to the sea, get some more oxygen, and stalk you. You just lost at your own game. You're outgunned and out-manned... Did that go the way you thought it was gonna go? Nope. :)
Will Ferrell and Mark Whalberg play two cops who take over a case when two colleges die played by Sam Jackson and Dwayne The Rock Johnson. They are to take down a billionaire investment broker played by Steve Coogan. Eva Mendes plays Ferrell's hot wife. There are many funny moments and this is a highly recommend comedy
I am a decent fan of Will Ferrel and Mark Wahlberg. They seemed to fit in these roles, although after a while I grew tired of the constant yelling and moaning of Mark Wahlberg's character. In moments I really laughed hard overall though an average comedy movie.
GO SEE IT NOW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
You have to see this film... It is AMAZING. Great comedy, funny stunts, its EVERYTHING you could ask for! Worth it's money!
Skewers the action genre while also finding room for sheer madness. We've still yet to see the equal of Ron Burgundy, but this latest offering is a wonky yet worthy addition to the McKay/Ferrell pantheon.
Silly, tasteless and very funny...
Nimbly blending comedy and action -- with an affectionate slo-mo nod to John Woo -- McKay does his best work to date here.
Here the filmmakers are in fine fettle, which goes a long way to make much of the low-brow silliness and slapstick infectious.
Raises expectations that it has no real inclination to fulfill. The movie's best bits would stand alone nicely on YouTube, or on Funnyordie.com, the comic video boutique of which Mr. McKay is an owner and where he sometimes dabbles in short-form hilarity.
We've been told the NZ release date for this flick is Thursday, 30th Sep 2010.
Release date: September 30th 2010.
We haven't received times for this movie in this location yet. However these are updated as cinemas announce them, so check back soon. Hopefully the lovely cinemas in your location will choose to play it shortly. ~Ed.
