The Other Guys (Columbia Pictures)
The Main Guys Must Have Had A Better Script
The Other Guys combines the talents of funnyman Will Ferrell and dramatic actor Mark Wahlberg. They play mismatched detective partners who spend more than half the movie bickering. The film also has car chases, some funny one liners and best of all Eva Mendes. This all adds up to an inconsistent movie that entertains in some parts and drags along in others.
Allen (Ferrell) and Terry (Wahlberg) are desk bound detectives. This suits Allen fine as he does not crave the action life. Terry does. He is on the desk because he mistakenly shot Derek Jeter. Now he is like a caged animal, okay a peacock, who has to be turned loose to fly.
The main guys in the office are P. K. (Samuel L. Jackson) and Christopher (Dwayne Johnson). They are the macho men, the heroes of New York City, and the ones most likely to make Terry and Allen feel insignificant. Then, for an unexplained reason, they drop out of the picture.
Allen and Terry get wind of illegal activities by a New York investor named Ershon (Steve Cogan). They cant convince their chief (Michael Keaton) of his guilt but they investigate him surreptitiously. This gets them into hot water with a band of bad guys as well as with their own office. None of this plays out very interestingly.
The most fun comes when Terry meets Allens wife Sheila (Mendes). Terry is ultra impressed but Allen refers to her as plain, and characterizes her as the old ball and chain. It seems Allen is irresistible to women, as is further explored in a brief cameo with Brooke Shields.
Ferrell does a good job of showing the range of Allens character, but this means he is sometimes funny and sometimes not. As his partner Wahlberg seems completely out of his comfort zone. This is confusing as he seemed to be very much at ease with his Date Night role which was also comedic in a dry sense of the word.
The best scenes are those that include Mendes. She seems to get the inside joke about everything that is going on. Keaton is almost as good but not quite. Coogan never quite locks into his role.
The film is rated PG-13 for profanity and mild violence.
The Other Guys has some bright moments but a few moments are not enough to satisfy an audience who expects a full gamut of fun filled jokes and situations. Though it is much better than Stepbrothers and Land of the Lost this is still not Will Ferrell at the comedy pinnacle he ought to be reaching.
I scored The Other Guys a wrong people 5 out of 10.
