Is it possible to run X348 a bait-and-s witch scam in reverse? I can’t think of another way to describe the odd trick pulled off by “The Other Guys,” a new goofballs- and-firebal ls comedy directed by Adam McKay. The closing credit sequence is, in effect, a tease for a movie quite different from the one that has caterpilla r drive chain just concluded. Bold, brightly colored charts and graphs fill the screen with enraging data about bloated chief-exec utive bonuses, billion-do llar bank bailouts, Ponzi schemes and other entries in the encycloped ia of modern financial infamy.
Instead, Mr. McKay plays to his strengths and those of his frequent collaborat or and the movie’s star, Will Ferrell. In other words, “The Other Guys” is most conveyor rollers authentica lly itself when it indulges in a free-form but nonetheles s highly discipline d silliness that has the effect of dissolving , rather than piquing, whatever worldly anger or frustratio n you may be harboring. Once again, and for the first time in a while, Mr. Ferrell uses his big body, his quick mind and his infinitely belt conveyor fungible voice to yoke disparate and ridiculous traits into a brand new and yet instantly archetypal comic character.
Allen Gamble, Mr. Ferrell’ s mild-manne red, desk-bound police detective, lacks the pompous aggression of Ron Chaussures nike Burgundy in “Anchorm an,” the aw-shucks aggression of Ricky Bobby in “Tallade ga Nights” or the infantile aggression of Brennan Huff in “Step Brothers ” (all directed by Mr. McKay). Instead, he is aggressive ly, ostentatio usly, explosivel y passive — a combustibl e milquetoas t. Gamble is timid, gullible, irresistib le nike air max to gorgeous women and yet oblivious to their interest. He makes no sense at all, except in the absurd context of the movie’s craziest moments.
Gamble’s foil is Terry Hoitz, an unlucky detective played by Mark Wahlberg, who looks like an inflamed bantam rooster next to Mr. Ferrell’ s timorous ostrich. Actually, the two of them supply a more vivid — if less nike max comprehens ible — zoological metaphor in the film’s funniest scene, a rhetorical sparring match in which lions battle tunas for animal-kin gdom supremacy. When it operates in this nonsensica l zone of verbal nike max air riffing and broad slapstick (the most inspired example of which is a brawl at a funeral conducted in respectful whispers), “The Other Guys” provides some pretty good laughs.
It all hums along nicely for about 45 minutes, with Eva Mendes showing up for a purring, good-natur ed turn as Gamble’s wife, Mr. Wahlberg mooning over her and Mr. Ferrell shrugging off her charms. Not confident enough to be a loose, nutty spoof of macho cop action movies, it also tries to be one of those Extra explanatio n movies more or less in earnest. And so the guns are drawn, the mock swaggering becomes a bit less mock, and there is enough vehicular chaos, breaking glass and stuff blowing up to satisfy viewers for whom jokes about tunas, lions, pimps and the improbabil ity of Eva Mendes as a mate for Will Ferrell are likely to be too sophistica ted. YWJ