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Day 106: August 14th, 2010

The Other Guys




Meet The Other Guys

This comedy film puts Will Ferrell back in the right direction. He still has some ways to go before becoming actually funny again, but with the help of his long time collaborator and new comer Marky Mark Wahlberg, we have a slightly funnier comedy than one would expect.

The Other Guys is in the vein of Hot Fuzz, only with less jazz and more stupid Ferrell humour. It takes the buddy cop action film genre and parodies it. Sam 'The Man' Jackson & Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson are two egocentric big time cops who will do more than millions of dollars in damages to the city just to bust some people running dope. Tango & Cash on steroids. Their untimely exit (you knew it happened, come on) gives the others guys a chance to shine. The other guys are of course Ferrell and Wahlberg. Two polar opposites that when together make for some laughs.

Wahlberg plays up on his bad boy rep as he berates Ferrell every chance he gets. This is a fish out of water style of film for Wahlberg who finally just seems to have found his footing in comedy. Specifically this style of comedy. Ferrell tones it down a notch, but does his typical long winded comedic bits at others. His backstory involving hoes and pimps was a huge misfire in my opinion.

Eva Mendes is the sexy wife who gets nothing to do but be the good looking woman of the film. Her role is minute and her talents are kind of wasted, she does the best she can with the material. I really dug Michael Keaton as the Captain. With this film and Toy Story 3, I hope he has the comeback his so deserves.

The comedy is really hit and miss. I expected it to be a lot worse. As far as McKay and Ferrell comedies go, it's pretty light. It's more grounded than their previous efforts and actually has a bit of plot to give the viewer. The Other Guys is a rental.