Australian Penthouse

The Other Guys

Director: Adam McKay

Stars: Will Ferrell, Mark Wahlberg, Samuel L. Jackson, Dwayne Johnson, Michael Keaton, Ray Stevenson, Eva Mendes, Steve Coogan, Rob Riggle, Daymon Wayans Jr.

Sony Pictures

IN CINEMAS  SEPTEMBER 9

Review: Nathan Lawrence

WRITER/DIRECTOR Adam McKay is the comedic genius who gave the world Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy. This was released at a dark time in Hollywood when comedies were, at best, run of the mill and those in search of laughter were forced to sit through 89 minutes of tripe for one minute of chuckles. Anchorman not only sits as one of the oft quoted cult comedy classics of the 21^st century, it also spawned ‘The Burgundy Revolution’, offering then up-and-comers such as Steve Carell, Paul Rudd and even Seth Rogen a chance to shine. This was a turning point for mainstream comedy and led to the spiritual succession of such films as The 40 Year Old Virgin, Knocked Up and Superbad.

The Other Guys sees the reteaming of Adam McKay with his regular leading go-to guy, Will Ferrell, in their first outing together since the love-it-or-hate-it Step Brothers. Ferrell comedies are often a mixed affair and, depending on how much you love the man’s schtick, usually rather formulaic in how they handle their star. You can guarantee that you’ll see him lose it at some point, yelling and screaming in that all-too-familiar falsetto; you can bet you’ll have plenty of his patented expository humour; and it’s usually a safe assumption that you’ll get to see him with all (or most) of his kit off.

While The Other Guys comes short of the final point on that list, there’s plenty of the first two safe assumptions on offer. Make no mistake, this is a standard Ferrell comedy through and through and, taking the aforementioned Will Ferrell disclaimer into account, will determine your overall enjoyment. He’s been given the lion’s share of comedy, doing what he does best, but never really breaks out of that mould. Sure, his classic Ferrell comedy routine is done to perfection, but what used to evoke roars of laughter (even on repeat viewings), feels more formulaic this time around.

Most notably, Ferrell seems to be channelling more than a pinch of his Ron Burgundy persona from Anchorman, particularly as his initially pussy character takes the inevitable turn of hardening up. The main problem with this buddy cop flick is the major absence of chemistry between Ferrell and the odd casting choice of his sidekick played by Mark ‘Marky Mark’ Wahlberg. Marky Mark has shown the world in a limited capacity that he has a sense of humour, but his constantly furrowed brow and ‘I’m the angry straight-man cop’ character gets real old, real fast.

Further problems arise with The Other Guys when McKay has clearly gone out of his way to formulate and focus on an overly convoluted plot. Sure, it would work in a serious (or semi-serious) cop film, because that comes with the territory, but it fast leaves the genre appropriate land of satire and remains a core focus of the film, creating several comedic troughs where you’ll be counting down the moments to your next laugh. There’s a lot of confusing name slinging, red herrings and ultimately meh conclusions that harm this big budget-comedy more-so than push it beyond your average comedy.

To put the plot in a nutshell, it basically follows the initial heroic plight of P.K. Highsmith (Jackson) and Christopher Danson (Johnson) as they do a hilarious over-the-top Bad Boys­-esque cop routine. Allen Gamble (Ferrell) and Terry Hoitz (Wahlberg) are the titular ‘other guys’—desk jockeys who, respectively, love/hate their role. When Highsmith and Danson bow out as hero cops, it’s time for Gamble and Hoitz to prove their worth in a conspiracy of seemingly unrelated events and one helluva pre-maturity-Olsen-twins-type case.

What Tropic Thunder did with its $100 million-ish budget was create a clever comedy targeted at adults and offering much more than just cheap laughs. The budget was in direct proportion to the collective talent, the setting and what the film was ultimately trying to achieve in its satire. The Other Guys has an equally big budget that doesn’t show a lot of the time, fails on the more expensive jokes and doesn’t make proper use of its impressive cast. Worst of all, it waters down the humour to appeal to a wider demographic and, in so doing, tries too hard (and as much as it succeeds) in trying anything to make the audience laugh.

Michael Keaton serves as a more apt straight man than Mark Wahlberg, Samuel L. Jackson and Dwayne Johnson are part of the film’s initial energy but don’t get enough screen time, Eva Mendes carries her one-joke character well, while Steve Coogan entices laughs from what few scenes he’s present in. Even the rarely present competing cop duo of Rob Riggle and Damon Wayans Jr. , seem to have more chemistry and garner more laughs than the combination of Wahlberg and Ferrell. And then there’s the ‘what the hell accent is that?’ flat performance from the usually solid Ray Stevenson: a perfect example of how a comedy with one too many straight-man characters can lose momentum.

The Good Guys isn’t a terrible film by any means; it starts off at a great pace and the jokes run thick and fast initially. But once you hit the halfway point things start to slow down, jokes are regularly recycled and the silly attempts at humour often fall short. Upon reflection, these sorts of criticisms are also true of Anchorman; but what worked six years ago, doesn’t anymore. Comedy has evolved beyond the shotgun approach to evoking laughter, so instead of working as a liberal homage to what McKay and Ferrell initially created with The Legend of Ron Burgundy, results in a hit-or-miss affair that should have been a whole lot better.