{"id":3811,"date":"2010-08-12T13:43:54","date_gmt":"2010-08-12T19:43:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.flovalleynews.com\/?p=3811"},"modified":"2010-08-12T13:43:54","modified_gmt":"2010-08-12T19:43:54","slug":"movie-review-the-other-guys","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/flovalleynews.com\/?p=3811","title":{"rendered":"Movie review: The Other Guys"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Other Guys:\u00a0 Political Activism\u00a0Buried in Absurdist Humor<\/strong><\/p>\n

<\/strong><\/p>\n

By Sandra Olmsted<\/strong><\/p>\n

In the guise of a buddy-cop action parody, executive producer Will Ferrell and director Adam McKay make the villain a Wall Street investment guru in order to focus on the US financial crisis. Ferrell and McKay remind the audiences of what is wrong with the financial sector; however, how well audiences like this movie might well be determined by whom they blame for the crisis.\u00a0 It would also help if the moviegoers were males with pubescent streaks that need to be fed nonsensical humor.<\/p>\n

Ferrell plays New York Detective Allen Gamble, a repressed cop whose greatest desire is to stay in the office and eagerly do other cops\u2019 paperwork.\u00a0 Gamble is paired with Detective Terry Hoitz (Mark Wahlberg, ), aka the \u201cYankee Clipper\u201d; Hoitz needs to prove himself after accidentally shooting Derek Jeter during the World Series.\u00a0 Gamble and Hoitz are the dregs of the precinct, and the other cops never let them forget it.\u00a0 The precinct cops are played by a list of exceptional actors, most notably Michael Keaton who plays Captain Gene Mauch.<\/p>\n

Keaton is at his deadpan best in this supporting role as a cop who supplements his salary by moonlighting at Bed, Bath & Beyond, so that his son can \u201cexplore his sexuality\u201d in college.\u00a0 Samuel L. Jackson\u00a0 and Dwayne \u201cThe Rock\u201d Johnson appear briefly as the precinct\u2019s hotshots, P.K. Highsmith and Christopher Danson, respectively, while Rob Riggle and Damon Wayans Jr.\u00a0 play, respectively, Martin and Fosse, the cops who enjoy taunting Gamble and Hoitz the most.<\/p>\n

Hoitz constantly argues with Gamble over how a real cop should act, which isn\u2019t how the milquetoast Gamble does.\u00a0 Gamble is only interested in playing it safe and following paper trails, yet his dogged pursuit of scaffolding violations leads him and the reluctant Hoitz to David Ershon (Steve Coogan,) , a Wall Street wonder, whose investing expertise, aka a Bernie Madoff-esque scheme, is supposedly making billions for his clients.\u00a0 The not-so-dynamic duo embark on an investigation with all the genre requirements of car chases, warnings to leave Ershon alone, and demotions for not leaving Ershon alone.\u00a0 Although Hoitz finds that he likes being a traffic cop, it is Gamble, a forensic accountant, who continues to follow the paper trail after their demotions.\u00a0 When the paper trail leads to Ershon brazenly trying to get the police retirement fund, can Gamble count on Hoitz for back up?<\/p>\n

The script, by Adam McKay (Presidential Reunion<\/em>) and Chris Henchy (Land of the Lost<\/em>), feels like a string of skits barely held together by a few plot points that try to explain the absurdities and incongruities in order to make the story work.\u00a0 For example, Eva Mendes plays Dr. Sheila Gamble, Allen Gamble\u2019s \u201csmokin\u2019 hot\u201d \u201cball and chain\u201d to whom Allen refers as \u201cplain\u201d. Later in the story, a quasi-plausible explanation is given for his assessment of her, but never for her unwavering devotion to him or, for that matter, why beautiful women love Allen Gamble.<\/p>\n

The oddity of women\u2019s attraction to Allen Gamble provides some scenes of hilarity, but doesn\u2019t make for a tight story with depth.\u00a0 The problem with Ferrell\u2019s work may be in the fact that the script seems to be less important than creating the vignettes of silliness, but then Ferrell is known more for improv than for acting.<\/p>\n

Although the film itself doesn\u2019t get overtly political, the end credits provide amusing graphic representations of financial crisis facts, and everyone should stay for the credits and the surprises in the credits, in terms of both information and performances.\u00a0 For example, moviegoers might find it surprising how fast the disparity between management and worker salaries has grown.\u00a0 Despite being neither male nor enjoying Ferrell\u2019s particular brand of humor, I did like this film because of its humorous look at the financial crisis and its timing of its release in terms of midterm elections.\u00a0 Ferrell\u2019s persona might be of an overgrown adolescent, but at least it is a well-meaning one.\u00a0 A Columbia Picture release, The Other Guys<\/em> runs 107 minutes and is rated PG-13 for crude and sexual content, language, violence and some drug material.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Other Guys:\u00a0 Political Activism\u00a0Buried in Absurdist Humor By Sandra Olmsted In the guise of a buddy-cop action parody, executive producer Will Ferrell and director Adam McKay make the villain a Wall Street investment guru in order to focus on the US financial crisis. Ferrell and McKay remind the audiences of what is wrong with […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"ocean_post_layout":"","ocean_both_sidebars_style":"","ocean_both_sidebars_content_width":0,"ocean_both_sidebars_sidebars_width":0,"ocean_sidebar":"","ocean_second_sidebar":"","ocean_disable_margins":"enable","ocean_add_body_class":"","ocean_shortcode_before_top_bar":"","ocean_shortcode_after_top_bar":"","ocean_shortcode_before_header":"","ocean_shortcode_after_header":"","ocean_has_shortcode":"","ocean_shortcode_after_title":"","ocean_shortcode_before_footer_widgets":"","ocean_shortcode_after_footer_widgets":"","ocean_shortcode_before_footer_bottom":"","ocean_shortcode_after_footer_bottom":"","ocean_display_top_bar":"default","ocean_display_header":"default","ocean_header_style":"","ocean_center_header_left_menu":"","ocean_custom_header_template":"","ocean_custom_logo":0,"ocean_custom_retina_logo":0,"ocean_custom_logo_max_width":0,"ocean_custom_logo_tablet_max_width":0,"ocean_custom_logo_mobile_max_width":0,"ocean_custom_logo_max_height":0,"ocean_custom_logo_tablet_max_height":0,"ocean_custom_logo_mobile_max_height":0,"ocean_header_custom_menu":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_family":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_subset":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_size":0,"ocean_menu_typo_font_size_tablet":0,"ocean_menu_typo_font_size_mobile":0,"ocean_menu_typo_font_size_unit":"px","ocean_menu_typo_font_weight":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_weight_tablet":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_weight_mobile":"","ocean_menu_typo_transform":"","ocean_menu_typo_transform_tablet":"","ocean_menu_typo_transform_mobile":"","ocean_menu_typo_line_height":0,"ocean_menu_typo_line_height_tablet":0,"ocean_menu_typo_line_height_mobile":0,"ocean_menu_typo_line_height_unit":"","ocean_menu_typo_spacing":0,"ocean_menu_typo_spacing_tablet":0,"ocean_menu_typo_spacing_mobile":0,"ocean_menu_typo_spacing_unit":"","ocean_menu_link_color":"","ocean_menu_link_color_hover":"","ocean_menu_link_color_active":"","ocean_menu_link_background":"","ocean_menu_link_hover_background":"","ocean_menu_link_active_background":"","ocean_menu_social_links_bg":"","ocean_menu_social_hover_links_bg":"","ocean_menu_social_links_color":"","ocean_menu_social_hover_links_color":"","ocean_disable_title":"default","ocean_disable_heading":"default","ocean_post_title":"","ocean_post_subheading":"","ocean_post_title_style":"","ocean_post_title_background_color":"","ocean_post_title_background":0,"ocean_post_title_bg_image_position":"","ocean_post_title_bg_image_attachment":"","ocean_post_title_bg_image_repeat":"","ocean_post_title_bg_image_size":"","ocean_post_title_height":0,"ocean_post_title_bg_overlay":0.5,"ocean_post_title_bg_overlay_color":"","ocean_disable_breadcrumbs":"default","ocean_breadcrumbs_color":"","ocean_breadcrumbs_separator_color":"","ocean_breadcrumbs_links_color":"","ocean_breadcrumbs_links_hover_color":"","ocean_display_footer_widgets":"default","ocean_display_footer_bottom":"default","ocean_custom_footer_template":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"ocean_post_oembed":"","ocean_post_self_hosted_media":"","ocean_post_video_embed":"","ocean_link_format":"","ocean_link_format_target":"self","ocean_quote_format":"","ocean_quote_format_link":"post","ocean_gallery_link_images":"on","ocean_gallery_id":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[13,26],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3811","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-entertainment-travel","category-movie-reviews","entry"],"yoast_head":"\nMovie review: The Other Guys - flovalleynews.com<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/flovalleynews.com\/?p=3811\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Movie review: The Other Guys - flovalleynews.com\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The Other Guys:\u00a0 Political Activism\u00a0Buried in Absurdist Humor By Sandra Olmsted In the guise of a buddy-cop action parody, executive producer Will Ferrell and director Adam McKay make the villain a Wall Street investment guru in order to focus on the US financial crisis. 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