January 6, 2011: The Other Guys
This one snuck up on me. I hadn’t really intended to see The Other Guys, but I put it on to see whether it was actually as funny as I had heard it was. It seemed to be uneven enough to fall well short of comedy classic status, but time may tell us otherwise and I was sideswiped by enough hilarious setups and non-sequitur one-liners that this turned out to be more than just a pleasant surprise.
Will Ferrell, well-known for his off-the-wall comedic schtick, and Mark Wahlberg, better known for his dramatic work (and his singing – ha ha) but making a serious name for himself with his fast-talking comic timing in movies such as Date Night (2010), play reluctant partners in this buddy cop send-up which manages to parody overblown action films and also pay respect to the important contributions nerds make in the world, while delivering a carefully structured indictment of the excessive power held in the world by corporations and wealthy individuals. All of this is peppered with both random and related absurdist comedy bits backed by some serious cameo firepower and a wonderful supporting cast. Of course, looking at the pedigree of this film suggests that this is no accident. Director Adam McKay has previously directed Will Ferrell in Step Brothers (2008), Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby (2006), and cult favourite Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy (2004). All three of these earlier films have a nucleus of comic leads headed by Ferrell, with supporting casts populated by top comedy talent as well as respected character actors, with most of the cast playing it straight in order to allow the absurd out-of-place actions of the core characters to shine through. The Other Guys follows in that model and is a fitting successor, featuring the likes of the semi-serious Samuel L. Jackson and Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson as a celebrity cop duo and the under-appreciated Michael Keaton as the police captain.
Of course, I wouldn’t recommend this to anyone who dislikes Will Ferrell, since it’s clearly his movie and he’s totally in form here, but he’s in his intelligent mode rather than his doofus mode (i.e. Wedding Crashers cameo in 2005). Wahlberg is also not to be underestimated, as his playing things straight and dumb provides the film’s sneakiest punchlines. Don’t go into The Other Guys expecting wall-to-wall gags, but rather, the framework of a real story upon which a great deal of comedy is carefully draped.
Makes me want to revisit Anchorman.
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