![]() ![]() Watching Hoitz and Gamble butt heads, there’s little doubt a perfectly entertaining movie could be made without leaving the office, but these characters are clearly not alone in their craving for some action. There’s more room for such comic latitude early in the film - including a rowdy run-in with Gamble’s ex-girlfriend (Natalie Zea) and her emasculated new beau (Brett Gelman) - but once the plot kicks in, there’s less opportunity for wayward jokes, leaving the movie conspicuously less funny in the process. You gotta let me fly!”), Wahlberg is tasked with playing it straight, while Ferrell is free to improvise at will. With a few flamboyant exceptions (such as Hoitz insisting, “I’m a peacock. ![]() Luckily, the two leads have a special kind of chemistry. Putting more stock in their relationship than we do, the pic serves up a mopey montage of the partners trying to make do without each other - an uneven sequence that plays like something out of a romantic comedy. Just when things should be getting interesting, their captain (Michael Keaton, playing babysitter to a department of overgrown kids rounded out by Rob Riggle and Damon Wayans Jr.) separates the two. Yes, there’s a case to be solved, but Gamble’s real mission, as he tells hot-headed Hoitz, is “to climb over that anger wall of yours.” The pair hardly get along at first, but the film doesn’t exploit their differences for long, preferring to concentrate on the mushier notion that their relationship matters. Hoitz sees his chance after a particularly overzealous stunt by Highsmith and Danson puts the spotlight-hogging cops out of commission, with the desk jockey dragging his Prius-driving, wooden gun-wielding partner Gamble into the fray. Hoitz would probably be in the field, too, if it weren’t for a trigger-happy accident at a Yankees game. As Terry Hoitz, Wahlberg plays a screw-up who’d give anything to be the sort of tough-guy hero the actor usually plays (where other pics have exploited Wahlberg’s abs, “The Other Guys” goes out of its way to make it look as if he gets by on an all-doughnut diet). We’ve seen variations on this too-naive-to-know-better routine from Ferrell before, which makes Wahlberg the pic’s casting coup. In keeping with previous Ferrell showcases, “The Other Guys” identifies a character who could easily support a series of “Saturday Night Live” sketches - in this case, milquetoast police accountant Allen Gamble (Ferrell), whose perky posture and contented smile reveal the intense satisfaction he takes from being a team player, even if the closest he comes to the action is typing up case reports for star cops Highsmith (Samuel L. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |