THE OTHER GUYS: THAT'S WHY THEY AREN'T THE GUYSP.K. Highsmith: You have the right to remain silent... but I want to hear you scream!
In preparation for this year's movie awards season, I was lucky enough to recently take in a showing of The Fighter with Mark Wahlberg. I think he trained about five years or something to prepare for that role and although all the attention is getting paid to Christian Bale, Wahlberg showed a quiet strength in that film. However, The Other Guys, I don't know what he was thinking. The good news, is that the first five or 10 minutes of this film is actually kind of amusing. It mainly focuses on two hot shot cops, Samuel Jackson and Dwayne Johnson, Highsmith and Danson. These are the type of characters were used to, the ones with the funny one-liners, lots of testosterone, who take risks and literally put their lives on the line. Unfortunately, they cross the line which leaves a big gap, unfortunately a gap large enough for Will Ferrell and Mark Wahlberg to try to enter. Luckily their performances were flat enough, no chemistry between them, so that they could enter that gap. It might be a guy thing, but this was a pretty crude movie with lots of jokes about bodily functions. I find that the worst jokes are the ones that need explaining, and there were plenty in this film. I will admit to being amused to be song references constantly being tossed at Michael Keaton, who was the bright spot in this film. Keaton is the Captain of the squad where these detectives to work and his second job managing a Bed Bath and Beyond. In the bonus features there is an extended scene of Keaton in his managerial role as he addresses his employees and that was worth sitting through the rest of this film.
