The Other Guys

***WARNING***

THE FOLLOWING REVIEW MAY CONTAIN SPOILERS THEREFOR MAYBE UNSUITABLE FOR SOME FUCKS. IT ALSO CONTAINS MEAT, DAIRY, NUTS AND SHATTERED DREAMS

***YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED***

'The Other Guys' could have gone either way for me. My track record with Ferrell and McKay has been somewhat mixed. I enjoyed Anchorman despite its flaws, of which it had many most of which saved by Steve Carell. I Tried to enjoy Talladega Nights but it lingered on to many unfunny jokes and was obscured by John C.Reilly's totally unlikable and unenjoyable presence. So it came as no shock when I really couldn't get on with Step Brothers which I found funny for all of five minutes then became so angry that I wanted to stab a HIV positive hobo, hunt down Reilly, anally violate him with the infected blade and force him to work at any Harvester for a decade before ripping out his spine and proceeding to batter the projected image of himself on the screen until the return of christ. 

'The Other Guys' however does not feature John C.Reilly and instead swaps out the part he would have played with the ever watchable and always fantastic (even in his shit movies, of which there are many) Mark Wahlberg. Simply fantastic casting as Marky Mark who even amongst the surrealism and over the top comedy action manages to bring a strong level of believability to the proceedings. Even Ferrell manages to tone it down for the most part be it by actually managing subtlety and on the odd occasion playing the straight man. Other notable cast members are Samuel L Jackson and Dwayne (I'm not The Rock anymore) Johnson who are simply hilarious as a pair of all action American cop heroes. 

Its nice to see that McKay is trying to branch out a little more with his directing style. 'Step Brothers' was just a string of ad-libs with no story and even less focus than an anti ford focus convention being filmed in Low-def by a cameraman teamed with absolutely no focus pullers racking focus for him. 'The Other Guys' on the other hand is surprisingly plot driven at times which is fantastic but fails to pull you in because there is a crucial part of the plot missing, the plot part of the plot to be precise. But in all honesty it doesn't matter all that much because its masked by a never ending stream of pop culture references, running gags (The best of which being a character who can't seem to stop quoting TLC songs) and deliberately over the top melodramatic moments coupled with sleazy cop music akin to the buddy cop films of the early 80's upon which this film is clearly based.

My biggest gripe with 'The Other Guys' is its rating, it should never have been released as a PG-13 movie. Now thats not to say that I think the film as is deserves an R rating, it doesn't. But the film should have been aloud to be released as an R rated movie simply because it clearly wants to be one and I feel may have been shot as if it was one. It happens too much these days with good films being released PG-13 when they clearly would have benefited from an R. The audience for this movie is the same as McKays previous who are not a young audience. Its so daring to release an R rated movie these days and that sickens me. Some of the best franchises have been revamped with a watered down PG-13 release, Die Hard 4, Terminator 3/Salivation and Rocky Bla Bla Bla to name a few. For the studio to take this film and insist it be a PG-13 is like putting your life savings on a bet for a marathon runner to win the hundred meters then shooting him in the foot five seconds before the starting pistol. 

To sum all this up is very difficult, I do like this film but it has a lot of problems. Its like having a best friend who would take a bullet for you, make you tea in the mornings and gladly take you in should you find yourself homeless but he smells like dried piss, wears Umbro and is a bonk-eyed ginger drug dealer from Scotland. My parting words I guess are to see it but don't expect too much. If you go in with low expectations you'll be pleasantly surprised. It truly is one of this years funniest films. 

The Other Guys gets...

                                                                                                                                     2.5 out of 5