The Other Guys

My better half and I recently had the opportunity to go to a movie, and it was my turn to pick.  Comedy is always a good compromise for us, so I chose "The Other Guys" with Will Farrell and Mark Wahlberg.

I usually enjoy Will Farrell movies, but it seems that most of them are really formulaic.  The first half hour is hysterical as Ferrell does his usual masterful job of portraying the idiosyncrasies of his character, but once the plot really starts rolling forward, much of the humor tapers off to mere chucklers rather than side-splitters.  Personally, I found "The Other Guys" to be an exception to this rule, as it remained very funny throughout the entire show.  It also excelled at generating incredibly awkward moments between the on-screen characters, which really amplified the punchlines.  It begins with two New York cops who are your stereotypical guns-blazing, car-crashing, foul-mouthed, invincible heroes, single-mindedly pursuing bad guys and never failing...until one day they do something mind-bogglingly stupid and get themselves killed (I won't spoil it for you).  So, there's a vacuum on the police force which Farrell and Wahlberg kind of end up filling.  Of course, they're not supercops, they're not heroes, they're not invincible - they're the other guys, the guys stuck behind a desk.  I'm sure you can envision all kinds of humorous plot points here, and most of them do turn up in the movie.  Lots of language and a bit of typical cop-movie violence and color, but all in all I thought it was a winner, and one of Ferrell's better movies.  From "desk pops" to the "Chechen version of Dora the Explorer", I was laughing out loud from beginning to end.

Which reminds me...the end credits were IMHO the best part of the movie.  No, not outtakes.  Something even better.  The words on the screen began talking about Ponzi schemes, starting with Charles Ponzi himself and then walking through a few notable scammers through American history until it landed on...***drum roll please***...the U.S. government with its TARP bailout, its takeover of the financial industry, etc.  I was completely surprised to see anything of the sort coming out of Hollywood actually make such an assertion -- true though it might be -- and it perfectly capped what I thought was a great movie.  I may just have to buy it when it comes out on DVD.