THE OTHER GUYS

Ok, I’m not going to be able to contain myself…

CONTAINS SPOILERS!

This movie tells the story of two detectives. One of them is looking for no excitement in his job and after getting transferred from forensic accounting, wants nothing more than to sit at his desk and do his paperwork… and since he can’t seem to handle confrontation, everyone else’s paperwork as well. The other was a rising star in the NYPD, sure to go straight to the top if he kept his nose clean. Then one night (right before game 7 of the World Series) he was handling security at Yankee Stadium, making sure nobody tried to slip into the Yankees clubhouse when a dark figure started approaching him carrying a baseball bat. He warned the man to stop, drew his weapon and warned him again. Receiving no response, he fired, hitting the man in the leg… only to realize that it was Derek Jeter listening to his iPod (actual cameo by Jeter, very cool…).

Detective Gamble (Will Farrell) finds out that an entrepreneur has several building permits around the city and hasn’t applied for a single scaffolding permit. Detective Hoitz (Mark Wahlberg) is distraught at this development because everyone else is looking into high profile theft cases and Gamble wants to look into finable offenses.

True to policework (sometimes), the scaffolding permits get the detectives to look into this entrepreneur and they find a deep reaching conspiracy and then they proceed to bungle the investigation several times, incurring the wrath of their Captain, who works both at the precinct and at the local Bed, Bath, and Beyond… yes, it’s that kind of movie.

RATING
PG-13 for crude and sexual content, language, violence, and some drug material

Again, I have to say that the MPAA hit the nail on the head with this rating. It really says it all. Except one thing…

The “some drug material” line just made me think of the role drugs played in this movie and I had to mention it since I’ve already said that there are spoliers in this review. Detective Gamble (Farrell) drives his Prius to a crime scene as he and Hoitz are attempting to step into the void left by the death of the “top cops” (played by Dwayne Johnson and Samuel L. Jackson). In his zeal to get to the crime scene, Gamble loses track of what he’s doing, driving his car into the crime scene, running over a corpse and a large amount of cocaine… which settles nicely all over his car. For the next few minutes, several references are made to a red Prius covered in cocaine.

CHILDREN – 2

I wouldn’t recommend that children see this movie. There are several wisecracks that are hilarious to mature adults but are not appropriate for children.

YOUNG MALE/FEMALE – 7/3

This is very much a guy movie. Action, drugs, (some) explicit language, and (lots of) crude jokes make this an enjoyable film. I’m just not sure that the 13-18 year old Twilight crowd will enjoy them as much as I did.

ADULT MALE/FEMALE – 10/6

So if this is such a guy movie, how did it get rated at 6 for adult women? Well, it’s hilarious. There are many scenes and many jokes that are still funny even if they are a little bit vulgar, uncouth, or uncivilized.

Will Farrell plays such a “square” cop for most of the movie and Mark Wahlberg desperately wants a bit of glory and also thinks that Farrell is a fake cop. The back and forth between the two of them is very well written and had me laughing throughout most of the movie.

GORE – 7

For this movie, this category really should be renamed violence because there was a fair amount of violence but very little blood. Even the violence was funny. There was a scene where the two detectives were going to play “good cop bad cop” on the businessman and were going to get him to talk. After Walhberg strong-arms him, he looks at Farrell and says that he would like to deal with him because he “seems more reasonable”. What follows actually what might happen if a forensic accountant tried to play the bad cop.

Essentially, he went nuts. He started by yelling the face of the businessman with a strange look on his face and then he proceeded to smash up the office a bit and he topped it all off by running across the room and leveling the suspect with a flying tackle.

ROMANCE – 5

Like the violence, the romantic subplots only exist to further the humor of the film. A running joke throughout the movie is that Detective Gamble has a strange ability to attract incredibly beautiful women (as evidenced by his wife, played by Eva Mendes). The first time Hoitz meets Sheila Gamble (Mendes) he doesn’t believe that they are actually married, going so far as to slip up and say “why are you with him?” before catching himself.

Even more hilarity ensues when Hoitz chases after his “one that got away”, finding her in a ballet studio (as the instructor) and he flips out when he sees her dancing with another man. Hoitz goes so far as to call her a stripper (dancing for money) at which point she points out that all the poles in the studio are horizontal. A minute later, Hoitz says that the dancing that they do isn’t too hard and that anyone can do it. Sure that he’s going to fall flat on his face, Wahlberg does the only thing that would be funnier; he executes several ballet dance moves perfectly (albeit for someone in jeans and a leather jacket) finishing with a pose that will cause you to spew your drink out from laughter (just warning you…).

DIALOGUE – 10

Unfortunately, I can’t remember all the one-liners so you’ll just have to watch the movie to hear them. A recurring line, however, related to Hoitz’s burning desire to be the alpha cop of the precinct and whenever someone is holding him back (usually Detective Gamble) he gets a sad/angry expression on his face and says something to the effect of “I’m a peacock! You gotta let me fly!” right before storming off.

SPECIAL EFFECTS – 7

The only reason this is rated so high is because the makers of this movie wanted it to be ridiculous and they got their wish. The opening chase scene featuring Detectives Highsmith (Jackson) and Danson (Johnson) was quite possibly one of the more ridiculous scenes I’ve ever seen… and I laughed throughout it.

Imagine during a chase, the police car (which is actually a muscle car) jumps and gets stuck in a double decker bus. They take control of the bus and resume the chase when the bad guys decide not to run anymore and make their final stand. Detective Danson puts the bus into a skid and the rear end hits a parked car, vaulting the previously stuck police muscle car out of the bus like a projectile, right for the bad guys and their vehicle. (As if that wasn’t enough) the camera pans to the inside of the muscle car, where Detective Highsmith is still sitting, firing two handguns while Mirandizing the bad guys. The muscle car takes out the bad guy vehicle, goes into the building behind it, and explodes.

Ridiculous? Yes. Awesome? You bet.

STORY/ACTING – 9/7

I don’t think that Will Farrell is a particularly good actor and Mark Wahlberg is good (but not great). Together they feed off each other and get to a level that they probably wouldn’t have been able to achieve with another actor alongside them.

As for the story, it’s ridiculous comedy at its best, a Police Academy type movie for this generation.

INTANGIBLES – 10

I can’t list every little thing here so I’ll just highlight a few. After proving he’s not trustworthy with a real gun, Gamble is given a wooden one. During a peptalk to his employees at Bed, Bath, and Beyond, Captain Mauch accidentally starts talking about a serial rapist before realizing he’s in the wrong crowd. Two other detectives vying for the spot of alpha cop go to an elementary school for a presentation about policework. When a call comes in that they have to take, they ask for their guns back since they had passed them to the students to look at. After Captain Mauch gets sick of Gamble and Hoitz, he reassigns them to walking the beat and traffic duty, respectively. At first, Hoitz is upset about being on traffic duty but eventually he gets into it, including a wonderful scene where he dances his way through his job. And of course, how could we forget…

“I’m a peacock! You gotta let me fly!”

TOTAL POINTS – 83/120
ADJUSTED – 69

Pretty good movie overall, just leave the kids at home.