The Other Guys

(M) Sony DVD/BD

Set against the backdrop of the bailouts/financial meltdown era of New York City (in which “CEO profiling” has become a problem), The Other Guys pits a couple of average Joes against a white collar corporate villain (Steve Coogan).

“The other guys” here refer to Allen (Will Ferrell) and Terry (Mark Wahlberg), washed-up detectives who are the joke of their precinct.

Allen is a nerdy, overly polite accountant who drives a Prius, develops iPhone apps and is happy to sit at his desk while others get in on the crime-solving action. Terry is his hotheaded partner eager to do something heroic and get Allen out of the office.

Their love/hate relationship is obvious from the get go (and is developed with a number of running jokes throughout the film) and when the current hotshot detective duo (Samuel L. Jackson and Dwayne Johnson) meets an unexpected and very silly end, Allen and Terry stumble into the position of filling their shoes.

They take on a high profile, billion-dollar money laundering scheme and find themselves in way over their heads.

Of course, as these movies typically go, the plot is merely a servant of the various outlandish setups and quirky characters with Michael Keaton putting in an unexpectedly hilarious turn as their put-upon Captain.

Adrian Drayton