The Other Guys: Movie Review

Will Ferrell has a handful of funny movies. Anchorman, Old School, and his years on Saturday Night Live.Other than that Will Ferrell stays just funny enough to maintain a prolific career as a funnyman. The jokes are, a lot of the time, the same as is the cast and characters he portrays. The Other Guys is no different. Will Ferrell plays Detective Allen Gamble, a loser-of-sorts forensic detective who has a split personally as Gator the pimp. He is teamed up with adrenaline pumping Detective Terry Hoitz (Mark Wahlberg) who just wants to kick-ass. When the cities most famous (and dumbest) detective duo Highsmith (Sam Jackson) & Danson (Dwayne Johnson) kill themselves jumping 20 stories after some diamond thieves the rest of the NYPD try to become the new duo. Meanwhile in his own little world Gamble starts to find irregularities in businessman David Ershon's (Steve Coogan) dealings. This leads to a cover up of massive proportions that only Gamble and Hoitz can uncover.

Adam McKay writer and director of The Other Guys provides the audience with another lacklustre 'comedy' that can be placed in the ranks of Talladega Nights, Step Brothers, and most of the crap he throws at us on Funny or Die Presents. In my honest opinion McKay and Ferrell realized they had a hit with Anchorman and then figured they could do no wrong. Unfortunately The Other Guys proves that they can do so much wrong. The opening segments with Samuel Jackson and Dwayne Johnson are nowhere near as funny as they are meant to be; in fact I found them to be painfully embarrassing. The main gag for them is that they cause 200 million dollars worth of damage to arrest a group of guys who are carrying a bag of pot. This segment is proceeded with the 'witty line' "Woah. Did someone call 9-1-Holy shit?" The movie continues with segments of moronic humour sandwiched between nonsensical, but serious, plot developments.

In all honesty, I'm tired of Will Ferrell. He's nowhere near as funny as people give him credit for. While sure there are some funny moments there are more unfunny moments than funny.  One of the few funny moments is when Ferrell's character is given a wooden gun to replace his sidearm, and when his car is hijacked the hijackers take his wooden gun. However this gag is repeated over and over and over again, as are most gags. Ferrell's characters car gets jacked and homeless men have an orgy in it, which made me chuckle at the absurdity of it, however when the gag is repeated 3 times I started to groan. Another moment is when Ferrell is taking his partner Wahlberg home to meet his wife and he makes his wife sound like an ugly old hag and out steps the beautiful Eva Mendes. However, Ferrell's abuse of her goes from funny to embarrassing as his antics border on domestic abuse.  This movie in an entirety proves its comedic value (as not having much) with its anti climatic arrest line at the end of the movie: "I hope you like prison food... and penis."

Sometimes I forget that Adam McKay and Will Ferrell are grown men as their comedy routine fits more with that of a high school student. The plot of The Other Guys is more boring than anything. The movie has many laugh moments, but none of them really worth a damn. Markie Mark spends the entire movie running around yelling and proves to be less than entertaining alongside the under-performing cast. On a last note - Rob Riggle. I hate him. The guy is not funny. No matter what you say. I can run around like an idiot yelling random shit like: IN THE FACE! too - it doesn't make me funny - it makes me annoying. He should have stayed in the Marines and out of movies.

This movie, while a million light years better than Grown Ups is still far from a good comedy. I would suggest you skip it... but if you feel the need for a mindless comedy filled with fart and dick jokes save your money and check it out on a cheap Tuesday or rent it on DVD when it comes out.

1.5 out of 5 stars