“If you were in the wild, I would attack you, even if you weren’t in my food chain. I would go out of my way to attack you.”

Justin’s rating: Take THAT, humorless 2020s!

Justin’s review: I kind of love that the genesis of this movie came about because people noticed that Will Farrell and Mark Wahlberg had fantastic natural chemistry together. I think that’s a great idea. Look for the chemistry that exists, then fashion a movie around the pair. I’ve certainly seen more than enough films where so-called buddies or lovers acted as if they were complete strangers who bumped into each other on the subway and were mildly repulsed by the smell.

Anyway, the aforementioned observed chemistry led to the creation of The Other Guys, one of several Farrell vehicles that director Adam McKay (Anchorman, Step Brothers) created.

When the NYPD’s arrogant rock stars — Samuel L. Jackson and Dwayne Johnson — buy into their hype so much that they leap off a multi-story building to their unintentional deaths, it leaves a hole for leading men to step up. That’s probably not going to be Terry (Wahlberg) and Allen (Ferrell), the two guys who are despised by everyone else in the department — and who don’t really like each other.

Terry is a perpetually angry homicide cop who accidentally shot Derek Jeter during the World Series, while Allen is a “forensic accountant” (it’s a real thing) who spills his nerd all over everything. Normally, they’re held back from anything important, but now they’ve got a chance to shine.

However, they’re going to have to solve a big case and out-perform their cocky coworkers (Damon Wayans Jr. and Rob Riggle) and win over their boss (Michael Keaton) when he isn’t working at Bed, Bath, and Beyond.

As with Hot Fuzz, The Other Guys dives into the rich field of buddy cop flicks for its satirical inspiration. By dipping into well-established tropes and then going a completely different direction with them, this film exposes the well-worn idiocy of the field while producing something that feels fresh.

And a lot of that freshness comes from, again, the chemistry of its leads. Allen and Terry are hands-down hysterical as partners. Terry’s constantly on the verge of losing his top and directing his barely restrained ire at Allen, while Allen is an unapologetic dork who nevertheless is kind of hardcore and has Eva Mendes as his wife.

Unfortunately, The Other Guys doesn’t go as hard as Hot Fuzz did and instead falls into a trap I’ve seen all too often in buddy cop comedies — and that’s actually trying to stuff an over-complicated and not-that-amusing detective story into the middle of it. This creates a sometimes-uneven flow between action, comedy, and crime that puts most of its best material in the first half while floundering about trying to solve the case in the second.

That said, Will Farrell seems to be having a ball playing a sincere and sensitive NYPD cop. Practically every other line seems like an attempt to get his co-actors to break. Few comedians do straight-faced ridiculous comedy quite like him, and if you enjoy that style, you’ll probably get a kick out of The Other Guys.

Intermission!

• These detectives are into so much collateral damage for a quarter-pound of marijuana
• “Did someone call 9-1-holy-s–t?”
• “You have the right to remain silent, but I wanna hear you scream!”
• The amazing lion vs. tuna speech, apparently Farrell improvised that: “Lion tastes good! Let’s go get some more lion!”
• Watch Wahlberg try not to smile during this whole speech
• “Did that go the way you thought it was gonna go? Nope.”
• “Now you’re asking me to mask my emotions because of how you feel? That I will not do.”
• “It’s a BAD TIME Bob!”
• “I did my first desk pop!”
• Thieves take the time to side-flip off cars, that earns my respect
• “At age 11 I audited my parents. There were discrepancies. And I was grounded.” “What the hell are you?”
• You have to fight very quietly at funerals
• “Are you sure you don’t have testicular cancer?”
• “This music makes me feel like I’m going shopping for a training bra.”
• “AMERICA!” *jams on pedal*
• That’s a lot of cocaine on the car
• A wooden gun can still hurt
• “You’re just mad that I have a nice change purse.”
• “Why did they take our SHOES?”
• There’s at least two actors from The Office in here. And Parks and Recreation.
• They stained the wood gun
• Allen on his drop-dead gorgeous wife: “Come on, they’re not all first round picks”
• “They found your car. It’s voting for Ralph Nader.”
• “You probably think because of the beard I’m really hairy. But I’m not. Shaved.”
• “…and the children all got pinkeye…”
• He’s actually a pretty good ballet dancer
• “I think we all experienced our own ballet today. A ballet of emotions.”
• “You learned to dance like that sarcastically?”
• Explosions are far more intense than movies make them out to be
• The road to pimphood is very subtle
• Bribes are hard to turn down
• The rare bad cop-bad cop interrogation
• Terry’s actually a pretty good fighter
• The bad guys always taking their shoes is my favorite running joke
• Allen gets downgraded to a whistle
• The TLC references
• “Pimps don’t cryyyyyyy”
• Negotiating through an ice cream truck’s PA includes some cheery music
• If you work as both a police captain and a sales manager, don’t mix up your jobs