The Other Guys (2010) – Cathay @ AMK Hub. The Departed was famed director Martin Scorsese’s take of the well-known 2002 Hong Kong cop drama Infernal Affairs. Funnily, while the Hollywood version of the film enjoyed great performances from its ensemble cast, the most memorable performance wasn’t from any of the actor leads – Jack Nicholson, Leonardo DiCaprio or Matt Damon. Rather, it was a supporting role played by Mark Wahlberg. Wahlberg played a super potty mouth detective sergeant. He got the best and most memorable lines in the film, and was later nominated for Best Supporting Actor for his performance in the film.
That was really the one reason I booked tickets for The Other Guys for a Saturday morning screening at AMK Hub. Granted, the genre this time is cop buddy action comedy, but Wahlberg again plays a disgruntled police officer and I was looking forward to getting entertained with his foul-mouth tirades again.
The film opens with a parody. Two NYC supercops Highsmith and Danson – played hilariously by Samuel L. Jackson and Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson – are on the chase of a couple of small time drug runners and in the pursuit destroys a good part of the city. The city is however in such admiration of these two fellows that they get away with it, yet again.
These two are also worshipped by the backroom officers who are in such awe they think nothing of doing the mountain of post-incident paperwork these two throw up each time as a result of their inclination towards destruction and mayhem. In this very backroom too are two low-key officers: the nerdy and geeky forensic accountant with latent anger management issues, Allen Gamble played by Will Ferrell, and his partner Terry Hoitz who’s (in)famous for accidentally shooting a famed baseball player.
Things do a turnabout when Highsmith and Danson meet an untimely demise while on the chase in another case. Now, who’s going to step into those supercop shoes now?
Mutually antagonistic cops in a buddy pairing is a pretty common theme in films. But The Other Guys has honed that well-used theme to perfection with a few added twists of its own. The reason why Gamble prefers a low-key profile is on account of his anger management problems and past life, and without introducing story spoilers, that retelling is a hoot. Hoitz has his own issues too, and his angst is manifested through frequent outbursts and acerbic bitterness, especially with regards to the fact that people around him are constantly jibing him about his accidental shooting. Michael Keaton plays their long-suffering Captain, who moonlights as a bathroom salesman just so to put his kid through college.
There are gags galore, most of which work incredibly well. There’s one about Hoitz’s incredulity about Gamble’s ability to attract drop dead gorgeous women in his life, and it’s played to the limit for laughs. There’s another about the choice of in-car music, and yet another about an old lady having to play a sex talk messenger pigeon. An another about taking bribes. The one clunker I found laid in a particular singing scene, which thankfully was still over quick enough.
The missed opportunity, ironically, was in the fact that the film’s PG13. So, the one thing that I was most looking forward to – Wahlberg character tirades from the very R-rated The Departed – I got only a fairly mild version of in The Other Guys.
Still, Ling enjoyed the film a lot, as I did too. Certainly the funniest action-comedy I’ve seen on film or rental this year.:)
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