“The Other Guys” (2010) takes place entirely within the world of shoot-’em-up action movies, so it’s hard to take it too seriously – except that, weirdly, it has one of the most serious points to be found in an action-comedy.
Over the closing credits of director/co-writer Adam McKay’s film, visual aids show us how the US government operates a legal Ponzi scheme via too-big-to-fail bailouts even as law enforcement tracks down non-governmental Ponzi operators — as titular New York cops Allen Gamble (Will Ferrell) and Terry Hoitz (Mark Wahlberg) do in this movie.
Getting comedy out of system
Co-writing with Chris Henchy, McKay seems to want to move forward with serious financial/political topics – he’d later helm “The Big Short” and “Vice” – but first he has to get this blast of comedy out of his system. “The Other Guys” is indeed a blast for a good chunk of its 1 hour, 47 minute runtime.
Then it drags in the final act as running jokes run out of steam. Then it wins me over (or rather, makes me want to say it won me over) with the point made in those graphics – even if it’s incongruous as heck.
The opening calls to mind “Last Action Hero” when two purposely stereotypical action cops — Dwayne Johnson’s Danson and Samuel L. Jackson’s Highsmith — stop a few small-time criminals while doing enough property damage to make Superman and Batman cringe.
But the people of NYC love them anyway. Back at the precinct, the humor is broad but funny when Danson and Highsmith forcefully reject Allen’s attempts at congratulating them. Later, Damon Wayans and Rob Riggle have fun as Allen’s and Terry’s tormenters.
Typical odd couple
The titular duo are the typical odd-couple partners who grow to appreciate each other, but it’s made palatable and even delightful by the actors’ chemistry and riffing. Terry, who longs to be a superstar cop, tries to insult Allen, who is comfortable with desk work, by comparing himself to a lion and his partner to a tuna. Allen’s comeback rant is way funnier than it has any right to be, leaning as it does on Farrell’s skills.
“The Other Guys” tees up all kinds of broad premises for its two leads, who trade off straight man and funnyman roles just as their characters might trade off “good cop” and “bad cop” roles. Allen has an inexplicably hot wife (Eva Mendes), while Terry is great at supposedly effeminate activities like dancing and playing the harp, having learned those skills as a youth in order to make fun of gay classmates.
Another running gag is the damage done to Allen’s poor Prius. Michael Keaton gets in on the fun as Captain Mauch, who moonlights as a Bed, Bath and Beyond manager and accidentally peppers TLC song titles into his advice. This is solid smart-stupid humor.
A deeper point
Through all of the hijinks, the partners investigate David Ershon’s (Steve Coogan) Ponzi scheme, and the film is arguably making a deeper point by showing how their bosses – including Mauch – are not interested in the case. I’d like to label “The Other Guys” as a brilliant backdoor message movie, but the comedy and recent-history lesson never mix well.
Allen and Terry are quite absurd by the end, but I still like them. While there is plenty of destruction on display, the laughs are never nihilistic, and the violence is tame by genre standards. Indeed, every character in the film is too ridiculous for us to do anything but laugh at them.
You’re probably here for the guffaws, so it’s good that “The Other Guys’ ” return-on-investment is reasonably high. And legal.