I Call Bull@#&*!
Will Ferrel is a funny guy. Mark Wahlberg is his co-star in this film, someone who normally doesn’t do comedy. The duo are pretty great though and play off of each other well. Ferrel is Allen Gamble, a timid forensics accountant who loves his desk job. Wahlberg plays Terry Hoitz, a tough guy cop who accidentally shot (and wounded) Yankee great Derek Jeter.
With Gamble’s wits and the street know-how of Hoitz, they’ll crack the corporate money scheme involving the fictional Lendl Group and famous investor David Ershon (played by Steve Coogan). Along the way they upset their boss, Captain Gene Mauch (Michael Keaton), and Hoitz marvels at Gamble’s wife, Shiela, played by Eva Mendes. Not to mention plenty of other comedic situations.
The story is decent enough, but even better is the comedy. Directed by Adam McKay who also did Step Brothers and Talladega Nights, and starring Will Ferrel, you can begin to understand how most of the comedy plays out. Expect some hilarious lines and wild outbursts from Ferrel who is at the top of his game. There is a good amount of physical humor as well, but most is driven by the dialogue and on screen antics. Fortunately, there isn’t a lot of crude humor, but for me there was still too much. Certain types of comedic events have a lot of replay value and are fun time and time again, but crude and raunchy humor falls flat for me.
The Blu-ray Release
Sony Pictures did a superb job with this Blu-ray release. The two disc version comes with the Blu-ray on one disc and the DVD and Digital Copy on the second disc. The image and sound quality are superb; while there are little to no special effects in The Other Guys, the detail in the image quality is nonetheless impressive. I experienced no technical issues with the picture or sound and found them both to be AAA quality.
As for the extra features, there are quite a few, but several of them are not compelling. These include:
-Audio Commentary with the mothers of Will Ferrel, Adam McKay and Christopher Henchy – Yes, the mothers actually do the commentary track which is certainly different.
-Alternate Action (HD, 2.5m) – Samuel L. and The Rock are the action-packed, do whatever it takes for justice duo at the start of the movie. This extra includes a few more scenes with them doing their thing.
-Flash Forwards (HD, 2m)
-Wasn’t That? (HD, 15m) – Kind of a making of feature, but it focuses on the characters.
-Line-O-Rama (HD, 9m) – With all of the jokes in The Other Guys, you have to figure that a lot of jokes didn’t make the final cut — this is a collection of some of those other lines.
-Crash And Burn! (HD, 10m) – There are several stunts in the movie involving cars and explosions, and this feature gets into the behind the scenes of those moments.
-We Shouldn’t Kiss Chicken (HD, 1m)
-Mark Wahlberg’s Eating Contest Entourage (HD, 3.5m) – A useless, weird feature with Wahlberg talking to an extreme eater.
-Rob Riggle Likes To Party (HD, 2.5m) – Another weird feature in which Rob talks about a variety of unrelated topics.
-Why Are There Brits In This Movie? (HD, 6m45s) – Steve Coogan from England is given the spotlight.
-Lendl Global Commercial (HD, .5m) – A fictional commercial about the Lendl Group from the movie; and yet another useless extra feature.
-Bed Bath And Way Beyond (HD, 4m) – Michael Keaton is a Bed, Bath And Beyond manager in addition to being police chief. This feature examines his brief role as the manager.
-Music Video (HD, 4m) – A rapper and Eva Mendes perform “Pimps Don’t Cry,” a song used in the movie.
-Extreme Close Up (HD, 5m) – A goofy feature with some of the cast and crew being interviewed with a camera pushed into their face.
-Deleted Scenes, Alternate Ending (HD, 30m) – Over a dozen extended and deleted scenes plus an alternate ending, nice.
-Everyone Hates The DVD Guy (HD, 5m) – A semi-funny feature in which cast and crew lament the people recording film behind the scenes that was eventually used in these extras.
Quite a few extra features for The Other Guys although some are frankly useless while others like the extra scenes and the Line-O-Rama are welcomed.
To the summary…