The Other Guys: I’m usually a sucker for Will Ferrell, but I know that for every gem (“Talladega Nights”), there is a misfire (“A Night at the Roxbury”). And try as I might to have liked this film, this one is definitely a lesser effort. This time around, we get his spin on buddy cop movies. He and Mark Wahlberg are mismatched partners in the NYPD. He’s a pencil-pusher that avoids danger and Marky-Mark is a disgraced cop with a temper looking for redemption. After the resident hero cops (played by Samuel L. Jackson and The Rock) die in the line of duty, it’s up to the…less spectacular cops to fill in the gaps and our stalwart heroes find themselves involved in financial malfeasance that reeks of Bernie Madoff involving a Wall Street power broker played by Steve Coogan. Eva Mendes, Ray Stevenson, and Michael Keaton are here in support. And while there are some funny bits (the lion-tuna exchange, for example), they don’t save the overall lethargic feeling of the whole picture. Ferrell tries way too hard (too much improv misfiring here), Wahlberg is underdeveloped, and the film takes some weird deviations that make no sense (the whole bit about bribery or being a pimp, for examples). Mendes and Keaton, however, steal every scene they are in (Keaton damn near steals the picture as their police captain who moonlights at Bed, Bath, and Beyond). From the same director as “Talladega Nights”, but not nearly as good as “Talladega Nights”. Lower your expectations. Woodchuck sez, “It‘s a let-down”.
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