Review of Starsky & Hutch (2004) by Terry C — 11 Mar 2011

Starsky and Hutch--unrequited gay lovers? Well, not so much on the ABC series that ran from 1975-1979 and starred David Soul as Ken Hutchinson and Paul Michael Glaser as Dave Starsky. But in this 2004 big screen adaptation about two detectives working undercover in Bay City, the homoeroticism is turned up to eleven.

Screw subtext, this movie puts it all out there. Transferring old cop shows to the big screen has never been a successful model (see The Mod Squad, I Spy and The Avengers), but Starsky and Hutch absolves itself of profundity and just lets loose with the laughs.

Sure, not all of the gags work, there's enough to keep you laughing. Heck, the movie's opening credits jams out to Barry Manilow's 'Can't Smile Without You'. This movie version of Starsky and Hutch, from Hangover director Todd Phillips, shooting the movie with a retro style that plays like an early episode of the series, does give us something the television series didn't: the first meeting between the two detectives, now played by Ben Stiller (Starsky) and Owen Wilson (Hutch).

Like many movies these two do together, Starsky is the uptight guyt and Hutch the loose, laid back guy. Starsky is focused on matching the record of his late mother, once a dominant force of the department, while Hutch prefers to just stay loose, and work both ends of the law with the aid of Huggy Bear, played to the comic hilt by Snoop Dogg.

Hutch's amoral ways irk Starsky. But their pairing eventually evolves into a deeper connection, even though it's pretty eveident Starsky is probably a closet case. Hutch is more pansexual, has a three way with two cheerleaders, but it's comic gold when he picks up a guitar and strums David Soul's hit 'Don't Give Up On Us' and Starsky thinks it's for him.

There's no denying the chemistry between Stiller and Wilson, especially after five movies together (The Cable Guy, The Royal Tenenbaums, Permanent Midnight, Zoolander and Meet The Parents). To watch them go undercover as mimes in order to infiltrate the bar mitzvah of the daughter of a drug lord, Reese Feldman (Vince Vaugn, terrifically funny).

They're even better during a shower scene at the station in which the two, completely oblivious to their colleagues' gay guffaws, strap on pistols whilst wearing tiny towels. Then there's Will Ferrell as Big Earl, a hairne wearing convict who agrees to give the boys info if they pose for him in compromising positions.

The gayness is turned up even more whenn Starsky dons biker wear that is pure Village People. Props to the movie for also deftly recreating the Seventies much like Anchorman. Even Starsky's cherry-and-white striped 1976 Gran Torino, the love of his life, is included.

What makes Starsky and Hutch so great is how it unabashedly tears down so many macho cliches in favor of laughs that really hit.