First Hit: An insipidly lost film with little direction and a hopeless story.
I’ve mentioned this before that I don’t think Will Ferrell is much as an actor and somewhat bankrupted as a comedian. That is a given. But what was a good actor like Mark Wahlberg thinking by being in this film?
The writing by Adam McKay and Chris Henchy was completely lost, had no focus, and devoid of a meaningful subject and worse as comedy.
The opening sequences with Samuel L. Jackson and Dwayne Johnson were mildly amusing as a spoof on super-hero cops, but then to have them jump off building and commit suicide while in pursuit of criminals was totally lost on me. What was the point of this?
The Other Guys, who are the wanna be cops in the squad room, was totally a misrepresentation of anything cops do, or don’t do, and if it was supposed to be ironic it totally missed the mark. Terry Hoitz (played by Wahlberg) is a damaged cop because he mistakenly shot Derek Jeter in the leg and now the whole city of New York hates and reviles him.
His partner Allen Gamble (played by Ferrell) was a desk cop, who worked in accounting, but now has to be a real detective and risk himself on the streets. They are a mismatched partnership and don’t get along.
There are a few moments of real laughter as they display their differences, but mostly they go through this film mugging and pretending to work on a case together. The aspect that all beautiful women are attracted to Gamble falls flat and is nowhere believable.
The story line that they tracking down a racketeer is only reasonable because Gamble worked in the accounting department, nothing else works.
Ferrell cannot act. The difference between a good comedian acting as a straight man and a bad one is to watch Steve Carell in his latest film and watch Ferrell in this one; night and day. Carell is great and Ferrell is insipid. Wahlberg must be having a crisis of confidence to take on this film. He is can be a very good actor but here he must be just picking up a paycheck. It was nice to see Michael Keaton again on the screen in the role as Ferrell’s and Wahlberg’s boss. Jackson and Johnson are a good team together and their egos work well. Maybe the film needed to focus on them. McKay co-wrote and directed this mess and if he gets to direct another film he better be watched over by someone who knows something about film making.
Overall: This film is useless at all levels.