The Other Guys

This movie is HILARIOUS! It is one of the funniest and cleverest movies I have seen.

Narrated by the authoritative voice of Ice T, the film is about ‘The Other Guys’, the less-than-competent law enforcers whom most cop shows and movies are not about. Will Ferrell and Mark Wahlberg’s partnership is the inept antithesis of Samuel L. Jackson and Dwayne Johnson’s (the Rock) heroic and arrogant team. When the latter die in the line of duty Terry, Wahlberg’s character, wants to fill the opening slot for top cops. Meanwhile, his passive partner Allen (Ferrell) is content with pushing papers and filing reports. The partners then get embroiled in an elaborate fraud case, which Terry keeps insisting is really concealing drugs, and the full extent of the incompetence of the police force is revealed.

The plot is far from original, or intense. But take a stock-in-trade storyline and immerse it in a pool of clever satire teeming with great actors, and awkward situations, and you’ve got a winner.

Here, Wahlberg channels his usually intense and serious acting into a hyperbolic presentation of an ‘angry cop’ with some hilarious outcomes. Declaring throughout the movie, “I’m a peacock, you gotta let me fly!’ his character is demoted for shooting Derek Jeter, prized New York Yankee, right before the World Series, and is therefore stuck at a desk playing Solitaire. Allen, on the other hand, has a “plain wife” in Eva Mendes, is relegated to a wooden gun and then a rape whistle as his police weapon, and takes pride in his Prius which his irate partner feels is “like we’re literally driving around in a vagina.” Together, the two are out to bring down an equally incompetent investment banker David Ershon, played by Steve Coogan, who must embezzle $32billion in order to cover his losses. Of course, Allen and Terry keep getting sidetracked by Ershon’s not-so-subtle attempts to buy their cooperation, which they only realise in retrospect is bribery. The cherry on top of this unlikely comedic cast is Michael Keaton’s role as the police Captain who also works at a manchester store and inadvertently quotes TLC lyrics.

This mish-mash of over-the-top characters, improbable situations and side-splitting one-liners can only be described as random. But in the best possible way! It’s not often that a piece of satire really hits the nail on the head in terms of effectively parodying clichés and exposing unlikely realities while still being funny and light-hearted. ‘The Other Guys’ does just that and it is brilliant! [Image from http://www.thefilmyap.com/]