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August 12, 2010

'Other Guys' funnier than expected

By STEVE OUELLETTE Movie Critic

There are few Hollywood ideas more tired than the comically mismatched buddy cops.

Anyone want to see "Rush Hour 17"?

Somehow, however, "The Other Guys" comes out feeling fresh … and just as surprisingly, so does funnyman Will Ferrell.

The film starts with an outstanding, and outrageous, action scene featuring two flamboyant supercops -- played with appealing arrogance by Dwayne Johnson and Samuel L. Jackson -- thwarting a crime in New York City.

They are the toast of the town, but when they are unexpectedly sidelined by a mishap, someone will have to pick up the crime-fighting slack. Could it possibly be the nobodies sitting behind a nearby desk -- Ferrell's nerdy pencil-pushing Allen Gamble and his intense but disgraced partner, Terry Hoitz (Mark Wahlberg)?

Ferrell has been stuck in a rut of mediocre sameness in recent years ("Land of the Lost," "Step Brothers," "Semi-Pro," "Blades of Glory"), always playing the same self-obsessed doofus man-child character.

Here his character is still a little out of touch, but he's more likable and slightly less oafish. Sure he's goofy, but he's grounded. The result is sharper and funnier comedy.

It also helps that he has a true straight man in Wahlberg, who takes his intense, humorless cop from "The Departed" and plays him strictly for laughs. Wahlberg is still a comedy neophyte but he performs well as the hotheaded cop doing penance for one bizarre misstep. Some of the biggest guffaws belong to him.

The plot doesn't matter much -- the ridiculed partners have to solve a complex financial scam -- but Ferrell and Wahlberg get some more than capable support. Eva Mendes sparkles as Ferrell's too-good-for-him wife. Steve Coogan is the crooked financial guy, and Michael Keaton has some moments as a quirky police captain.

Directed by longtime Ferrell collaborator Adam McKay (who has a cameo as Dirty Mike), "The Other Guys" sheds much of what hasn't worked in recent Ferrell flicks and builds on what has worked. It's consistently funny from the opening scene on, and it's got several pleasant little surprises.

There's an unwritten law that if a movie can't make me laugh in previews -- when the best bits are usually shown -- then it's sure to be a dud.

I didn't laugh at the trailers for "The Other Guys" … but in this case, the law turns out to have been dead wrong.

Rental Recommendation: Adam McKay and Will Ferrell still haven't made anything funnier than "Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy." Grade: A.

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