Film File - The Other Guys

In a city where everybody seems larger than life, how can two underachieving New York detectives push their careers into the big time? Unlike their heroic colleagues on the force, backroom cops Allen Gamble (Will Ferrell) and Terry Hoitz (Mark Wahlberg) garner no headlines as they work their ordinary, day-to-day jobs. Gamble actually relishes his job as a sedentary paper-pusher, but Hoitz, as a former beat cop, is itching to get back on the street and make a name for himself. However, having accidentally shot and slightly injured New York Mets pitcher Derek Jeter (playing himself), Hoitz is not about to get back on the street anytime soon. As examples of real cop poster boys for the force, NYPD detectives Christopher Danson and PK Highsmith (Dwayne Johnson and Samuel L Jackson) are the baddest and most beloved cops in New York City - the kind of guys Hoitz wants to hang with if he wasn't stuck in a career dead-end. Proving that every dog has his day, however, when a seemingly minor case turns out to be a big deal, the two cops get the opportunity to finally prove to their comrades that they have the right stuff. But even in a 24/7 city like New York, not everybody can be a hero - and especially two mismatched cops with little experience of stepping up to the plate when it is most needed. Gamble is a forensic accountant, the guy who never leaves the office, a man who loves his paperwork. Hoitz yearns for his former life on the streets, itching for a chance to get out there and make a name for himself with real crime: drug dealers, vice, murderers, and just about anything that smacks of 'The Wire'. In effect, the kind of cop dying to "bust some ass and shoot my weapon". "Hey, I've got a weird sense of humour, I'm a sick puppy," says Gamble at one point - a fair summation of Will Ferrell's brand of comedy throughout his career. One of American films' most unusual funny men, he's consistently opted for 'out there' and daring characters dating back to films like 'Old School', 'Anchorman' and 'Blades Of Glory'. Constantly testing the boundaries of absurdity, he draws gags out far beyond their sell-by limit to mine a deeply peculiar seam of humour where few others in his profession would venture. 'The Other Guys' allows more of his trademark eccentricity - especially playing against Wahlberg, an actor fully established as a serious tough guy in action dramas like 'The Departed', 'Three Kings' and 'Shooter'. It's a measure of the respect Ferrell surely commands that Wahlberg agreed to share the screen with him. Placing such opposing personalities in a comic cop spoof was an unexpected piece of adventurous casting. Added to this combustible mix is Jackson as Highsmith, a self-created mega-cop with media friendly one-liners as he cruises the mean streets in his souped-up muscle car. He's backed up by Dwayne Johnson as his partner Danson, a man with serious testosterone issues who fields questions about his celebrity conquests between taking down the city's hardest criminals. Even when this pair cause millions of dollars worth of damage in high-speed pursuit of gangsters, it still doesn't stop the steady stream of honourable citations from City Hall. Writer director Adam McKay manages to walk the thin line needed to make this cop spoof work by throwing in doses of the unexpected at regular intervals - including a song called 'Pimps Don't Cry'. The plot also runs against type in casting Ferrell as a babe magnet rather than Wahlberg as the likelier beefcake - he has a hot MD as a wife, Sheila (Eva Mendes), plus an ex-girlfriend Christianith (Natalie Zea) still pining for him. When the deskbound Gamble uncovers a Madoff-type scandal run by a scheming David Ershon (Steve Coogan), it gives these 'other guys' a long overdue shot at the big time. A step up from the standard bland comedy vehicles that have marked much of the summer, 'The Other Guys' is a peculiar and interesting way to pass a couple of hours.