The Other Guys Cop Out

Here is recipe for an average Will Ferrell movie.

1. Get Will Ferrell.
2. Give him a wacky character.
3. Give his wacky character a job.
4. Add water and stir until done.

I loved Anchorman as much as everyone else, but at this point, I think Ferrell is just beating the dead horse in an attempt to restart its heart.

The story is about two desk jockey cops, one itching to bust heads, the other contentedly crunching numbers. By sheer accident, they stumble onto a Ponzi scheme which leads to explosions and gun fights, as Ponzi schemes tend to do.

Micheal Keaton plays the police captain who often quotes TLC lyrics.

Samuel L. Jackson and Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson play the kick-ass Die-Hard-style cops who often wreck vintage sports cars, but their bit in the movie is minuscule at best.

There is the usual bunch of guys who you have seen a half dozen times in every Will Ferrell or Vince Vaughn movie but still can't remember their names.

Mark Wahlberg, in a surprising move, plays the cop who is itching to bust heads.

And Ferrell is the eccentric but quiet accountant who would rather crunch numbers than shoot bad guys.

The movie tries hard but falls flat. It's everything we saw in Anchorman, Talladega Nights and Semi-Pro, so maybe if you haven't seen all these movies, you might think The Other Guys is a fucking laugh riot.

Wahlberg drives the plot forward with the grace of a drunken truck driver, but in his defense, he is pretty funny with how serious he is and some of his insults I have made a mental note to use when I want to get in a bar fight ("When your piss hits the urinal, it sounds feminine.") But it isn't enough to save the movie.

The only other bright spot was Steve Coogan (Tropic Thunder), who played the villain. Maybe it's just because he is British, but he came across as charming, befuddled, and is the only guy in the whole movie who made me chuckle.

Other than Wahlberg, Coogan and Ferrell's tired A game, the movie has nothing going for it, nothing. The other characters aren't funny, the action is pretty tame (except that bit with the golfers, that was freakin' sweet), and the guy who invented the cop genre once again spins in his grave.

If you want to see a good police comedy, get Cop Out, it's on DVD.



This movie was widely panned by critics, but I ask you, what Kevin Smith wasn't? I also ask you, what Kevin Smith movie isn't completely awesome? That is a trick question because THEY ARE ALL COMPLETELY AWESOME.

Bruce Willis and Tracy Morgan play a couple of detectives trying to get a baseball card back.

That right there sets it apart. Name one cop flick where the characters don't accidentally blunder into some huge case. THEY ALL DO. Not these guys, though, they are just trying to get a baseball card back. (Okay, so maybe along the way they blunder into a big case, but they are still trying to get the card.)

Tracy Morgan is freaking hilarious and Willis makes a great straight man while still doing his whole bad-ass-with-a-heart-of-gold thing.

Laughs, action, and a little kid getting punched in the dick make Cop Out way better than The Other Guys.

Cop Out gets a 5 star accommodation.
The Other Guys gets busted down to parade duty and made to clean horse shit.