The Other Guys
The Other Guys
Directed by Adam McKay
Directed by 107 min.
Brewster McCloud (DVD Release, Warner)
Directed by Robert Altman
Thankfully, this week [Warner Archives DVD premiere of Robert Altmans 1970 Brewster McCloud] prepares you for the spottily clever The Other Guys. Its not clear if director Adam McKay (director of the hilarious Talladega Nights) promises an original a vision as Brewster McCloud showed that Altman (following the massive success of M*A*S*H) possessed a penetrating and unpredictable social vision and satirical sensibility. McKay at least has a startling and lively end credits sequence that bitterly critiques the Obama administrations financial follies. McKay may come from the world of contemporary snark-humor but this audacious sequence which extends the plots expose of Wall Street criminals is something neither SNL nor most mainstream media would ever dare.
As in Brewster McClouds look at Houston, Texas, as a mirror of then-contemporary American confusion, McKay uses the buddy cop formula of The Other Guy to prick comic conventions that are also social commonplaces. In Brewster McCloud, a young mans (Bud Cort) desire to flyto escapewas a symptom of cultural unease; in The Other Guys the mismatched detective team of persnickety Will Ferrell and hot-tempered Mark Wahlberg attempt to keep order in a culture and economy neither of them have the power to control.
McKay starts his film with movie parody: Sam Jackson and Dwayne Johnson play studly celebrity cops, a premise that gets wrecked as thoroughly as Altman undercut The Wizard of Oz, The Birds and then Bullitt. Unexpectedly, McKay leaps from that meta-critique to revelations about Ferrell and Wahlbergs weaknesses and phobias that get wilderand funnier. Michael Keatons best-in-years performance as the harried police chief features a unique pop culture running gag and Eva Mendes jokes make romance and sex equally madcap.
The film has no apparent structure; it seems almost improvised in a manner similar to Brewster McClouds capricious irreverence. The difference is, Altmans film was always visually elegant and formally inventive. The Other Guys just goes all over the place; stay tuned to see if McKay goes anywhere.