The Other Guys (2010) Will Ferrell, Mark Wahlberg, Eva Mendes, Michael Keaton, Steve Coogan Movie Review

The Other Guys (2010)   3/53/53/53/53/5


Mark Wahlberg and Will Ferrell in The Other Guys (2010)

The First Guys Were Better

Highsmith (Samuel L. Jackson) and Danson (Dwayne Johnson) are the heroes of the NYPD, they never give up the chase even if means causing millions of dollars in destruction to get their men. And it seems almost everyone loves them including police accountant Allen Gamble (Will Ferrell) who got transferred to the precinct and is partnered up with Terry Hoitz (Mark Wahlberg) who can't stand that Highsmith and Danson get all the praise whilst Gamble panders to them, doing their paperwork. But when Highsmith and Danson suffer an almighty fall Hoitz wants him and Gamble to step in to replace them as the hot shots in the precinct and he is going to drag Gamble with him whether he likes it or not. But between the shock that Gamble has a ridiculously hot wife to a case with connections to his superior things don't go easy for these unlikely buddies.

When someone told me that I only needed to watch the first 15 minutes of "The Other Guys" I wasn't that shocked because like with so many Will Ferrell comedies the humour starts to run dry after 15 minutes. But I actually disagree as you can go to the 25 minutes mark with "The Other Guys" thanks to the opening scenes featuring Samuel L. Jackson and Dwayne Johnson as over the top hero cops. And their scenes are the best part of the movie as both Jackson and Johnson are experts at sending themselves up.

Samuel L. Jackson and Dwayne Johnson in The Other Guys (2010)

Now what is interesting and almost curious about "The Other Guys" is that it is not just an unlikely buddy comedy purely reliant on gags because whilst we get the odd couple comedy of Gamble and Hoitz we also get a storyline. On paper this should work as the two should interweave and carry us through to the end rather than floundering like these movies usually do when the humour run dries or the narrative becomes nonsense but sadly here it just doesn't work. And the reason is simple as "The Other Guys" is another Ferrell comedy which thrives on angry characters that are meant to entertain through their angry nature. Maybe it's me but the whole angry, shouting comedy stopped being funny when Adam Sandler ran it dry after about his third movie.

Now whilst Jackson and Johnson are the best thing about "The Other Guys" the stars are really Ferrell and Wahlberg and sadly neither manage to make it work. In fairness Allen Gamble maybe Ferrell's most likeable comedy performance in a long time but it ends up boring and that comes down to there being no comic timing between Ferrell and Wahlberg. They each do their own thing in a scenes never playing off of each other and that adds to why it doesn't work or at least doesn't end up anything more than a forgettable comedy.

What this all boils down to is that whilst "The Other Guys" is supposedly a comedy starring Will Ferrell and Mark Wahlberg they are both outshone by Jackson and Johnson's 15 minute cameo. Maybe fans of Will Ferrell will find "The Other Guys" entertaining but for me the potential of the movie which actually has a storyline is never met.


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