From the moment I saw the motion poster online for The Other Guys I knew it was a movie that I would definitely be seeing. While most cop movies focus on action, it is always nice when one comes around that is a comedy and takes shots at the serious cop movies. Will Ferrell is once again over the top and works well with Mark Wahlberg. This movie does nothing special from other comedies, but like all good comedies the jokes are spot on and made me forget about reality. One of the interesting things is that Cop Out originally was supposed to have Will Ferrell, but he backed out to do the Other Guys.
Will Ferrell is his usual comic genius in the role of Alan, a cop who specializes in accounting forensics. Of course anytime I see a Will Ferrell movie I am always curious to know what percentage were ad libs on his part. Ferrell plays his cop role with a great neuroticism and with such a desire to be a cop that is the hero that one can not help , but root for his success while laughing at the same time. Wahlberg playing opposite of Ferrell continues to show his versatile acting abilities with his ability to not only be in a comedy, but to actually be funny as well. Wahlberg is able to deliver some of the funniest laugh out loud moments in the movie that he plays not only believable but with a straight face. Wahlberg's line about being a "peacock and that the captain needs to let him spread his wings and fly" should definitely make memorable movie quote lists in the future.
The number one component that truly made The Other Guys successful is that they were successful in avoiding the number one issue that most cop comedies fall into is that Ferrell did not have all the funny lines. Instead the great one liners were spread around. Michael Keaton as the Chief of police is one example as he continually gives quotes from TLC songs yet claims he is not familiar with their music. Also with the buddy cop movie one of the cops is the goof off while the other is dead serious. While Wahlberg's character is intense he matches Ferrell with the funny moments, and because of that the chemistry between the two is stellar.
The solid jokes alone though would eventually bore the audience, yet for a comedy cop movie The Other Guys delivers a good story as well. It is almost as if this movie was written as a cop action/drama movie and it was then at the point of having the story written that they went and added the great one-liners and jokes into the strong storyline. The Other Guys gives us a movie that allows the viewers to work to figure out the villain at the same time and does not give us the bad guy right from the start like with a super hero movie. This draws the audience in more and allows them to work to figure it all out at the same time as the main characters figure it out.
One thing I would have loved to have seen which is not the fault of the filmmakers, but the marketing would have been to keep "The Rock" and Samuel L. Jackson's roles hidden. This would have been a great surprise to the audience and after the first weekend this would have created a great amount of buzz then the buzz that came about by showing them in the trailer. I will say though that it was pure genius to have them both be the ultimate cliche action hero cops, because it only made the characters played by Wahlberg and Ferrell that much funnier and likable.
The Other Guys is a great funny buddy cop film. Wahlberg stole the show in my opinion and only further showed his versatility with his ability to make us laugh. The Other Guys surpassed my standards and what I expected and still has me questioning why this movie was released in August. August is typically when studios release movies that are traditionally bad. I am giving The Other Guys three buckets of popcorn out of five because of the stellar chemistry between Ferrell and Wahlberg. While this may not be the greatest movie ever made it is definitely one worth renting and even worth buying if one can find a great deal.
-The Movie Man
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