|
The Other Guys
| Released |
17 September 2010 |
| Director |
Adam McKay |
Starring
|
Will Ferrell, Mark Wahlberg, Eva Mendes, Michael Keaton, Steve Coogan, Ray Stevenson, Samuel L. Jackson, Dwayne Johnson |
| Writer(s) |
Adam McKay, Chris Henchy |
Producer(s)
|
Will Ferrell, Adam McKay, Jimmy Miller, Patrick Crowley |
| Origin |
United States |
| Running Time |
107 minutes |
| Genre |
Comedy |
| Rating |
12A |
|
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What fresh hell is this?
Will Ferrell is very much an acquired taste, but he has shown he can be reasonably amusing in the likes of Melinda and Melinda and Stranger than Fiction. Here though he’s back with his chief collaborator Adam McKay, with whom he made Anchorman, Talladega Nights and Step Brothers. Ferrell’s basic comic style seems to be to shout out random thoughts until something emerges that he considers funny. This hasn’t gone totally unnoticed in America where last year he was nominated for a Razzie with himself as “Worst Screen Couple” for his endless ‘comic riffs’.
Here not only is Ferrell at it, but his co-star Mark Wahlberg has decided to adopt this technique and right from the start he and Ferrell are shouting at each other in a desperate attempt for laughs. For the first ten minutes it’s distracting, for the next ten minutes it’s irritating and from then on it’s just plain depressing.
The string of incidents that pass for a ‘plot’ here concern Ferrell and Wahlberg playing two New York policemen who are frustrated to be in the shadow of two celebrity cops (Jackson and Johnson in mercifully brief cameos). When a potentially big case comes their way, they see it as their chance to make a breakthrough and then…..well frankly I couldn’t be bothered going through the rest of it. Suffice to say the ‘story’ is just a series of increasingly dense set-ups for Ferrell to go through his usual shtick.
You might hope for some relief from the tedium from the supporting cast but sadly this isn’t the case here. Michael Keaton plays the captain with his only joke (unintentionally quoting lyrics from R&B band TLC) falling flat. Eva Mendes plays Ferrell’s wife in a role that’s frankly demeaning for such a talented actress. Steve Coogan floats around cracking weak one-liners and Ray Stevenson pretends to be Australian for some reason. As if this film isn’t bad enough it also contains the discovery that the awful actor Damon Wayans had a son he called Damon Wayans junior and he is just as awful an actor as his old man.
The only experience I can compare sitting through this film to would be someone tapping me on the forehead non-stop for nearly two hours. If a partner or friend drags you to this horrendous mess, can I suggest having a couple of drinks or a sleeping pill beforehand so that sleep may save you from the torturous misery of having to endure the whole thing.
What is most offensive about this painfully unfunny rubbish is the sheer laziness of McKay and Ferrell. They obviously have so little respect for their audience that they think they can throw any old half-witted garbage together and people will still flock to it. The truly depressing thing, looking at it’s box office performance in the US, is they’re probably right!
- Jim O’Connor |
