Review of The Other Guys (2010) by Roddersj04 — 10 May 2011

The Other Guys tells the story of Officers Terry Hoitz (Mark Whalberg) and Allen Gamble (Will Ferrell) who aren't the hero cops that the police department idolize, they're merely the Other Guys. The main guys, Danson (The Rock/Dwayne Johnson) and Highsmith (SAMUEL L JACKSON!) set the film alight with their testosterone fuelled opening sequence of brilliance, complete with brilliant lines such as "Did somebody call 91-Holy **** and "You have the right to remain silent, but I wanna hear you scream!".

Using a bus to slingshot a car into druggie bad guys and into a store, causing an explosion, now THATS an opening sequence. Martin and Fosse are the rivals of Hoitz and Gamble, leading to a silent fight at a wake with characters whispering insults and momentarily stopping to pay condolences.

They also get some killer dialogue, whether its cornering a villian ("I hope you like the taste of prison food...and penis") or talking about their weekend. "So then what happened?" "What do you think happened? I woke up, I took the belt off my neck, got in my car, and got out of there.

" "Talk about a wild weekend" "I thought I was going to have to shoot my way out, hahahaha ...what are you going to do though, you know ...bar mitzvah's" They have an especially funny scene in a classroom of 10 year olds, which is probably my favourite scene in the film, and their retorts about the coke-covered car were especially funny.

Of course, the two main characters get their share of funny dialogue also, whether its Will Ferrells quote about how a tuna would beat a lion in a fight or groaning about how walking away from explosions are BS.

Its not just the quotes which are funny about them, as Gamble is revealed to have shot Derek Jeter in a flashback ("He's a bi-racial angel") and Terry gets his gun taken away and given a wooden gun, only to have the wooden gun taken and given a rape whistle.

All of the actors play their roles well, (after Planet of the Apes and The Happening, you'll be surprised Mark Whalberg plays a role well) and Steve Coogan definatley does well as the troubled business man.

Even the one scene characters like Christinith and her hairy (or not) husband do well when they are showed, even if they provide nothing to the plot but comedic foil. As you can see, I loved a lot about this film.

But not everything worked. Bits that didn't work for me? The relationship between Terry and his wife (Eva Mendez) wasn't really funny, it was essentially him saying his hot wife was plain and treated her unspectacularly.

Granted, I liked their last scene where he made amends with her and admitted he couldn't believe she was with him, and sending the granny out to relay their dirty messages had me laughing, but the bits before didn't make me laugh.

Making Terry a pimp back in college seems to be an idea which is great when you say it out loud, but when executed you seem a little dissapointed. Also, Will Ferrell didn't even convince as a college guy, he just looked like a 40 something man retaking college, but thats a minor niggle.

Also, the scene where Allen is jealous over his wife taking ballet with another guy (I assume that was her instructor). Will Ferrell livened up that scene, and Allens good ballet dancing was a laughable surprise, but the rest of the scene just didn't work for me.

All in all, this film isn't as good as Anchorman, but it certainly beats the dire Cop-Out.