The Other Guys (2010)

Jack & I were pleasantly surprised that we had a good laugh about every 5 minutes throughout in this cop comedy where disgraced NY detective Mark Wahlberg tries to redeem himself while partnered with pencil-pusher Will Ferrell. The opening sequence is a very funny car chase with a ton of property damage, and not a glimpse of the stars, but you won't be sorry, because it's got Samuel Jackson and Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson playing it for laughs. Wahlberg (I listed my faves in the second paragraph of The Lovely Bones) has said on talk shows that in his native Boston he would be lauded for the act that disgraced him in New York. I'm not saying more, even though many writers have. I've missed a lot of Ferrell's movies (including two out of the three other collaborations with The Other Guys' director/co-writer/co-producer Adam McKay (didn't see Step Brothers (2008) nor Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby (2006) but did see Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy (2004)) -- my favorites would have to be Stranger Than Fiction (2006); The Producers (2005); and three in which he had supporting parts: Dick (1999), which was the brilliant and hilarious reimagining of events leading up to Watergate in which Ferrell played Bob Woodward, Dan Hedaya played Nixon, and Michelle Williams and Kirsten Dunst played the two teenage girls who supposedly were Woodward and Bernstein's "Deep Throat"; Zoolander (2001); and Woody Allen's Melinda and Melinda (2004).

McKay, who has a cameo in his movie as Dirty Mike the homeless guy, wrote for SNL and directed a few episodes. His little daughter Pearl was featured in the short film The Landlord and he joined her in Good Cop Baby Cop with Ferrell.

There are many more funny people contributing to this movie: I always like Steve Coogan (see In the Loop), who plays the main financier. Damon Wayans makes an appearance as another cop, and The Daily Show's Rob Riggle is Wayans' partner. Brooke Shields, Tracy Morgan, and Rosie Perez are onscreen for a fraction of a second, and the narrator, uncredited, so don't bother trying to read his name as the credits roll, is Ice-T. A number of other cameos are uncredited, including Josef Sommer as the D.A., Anne Heche as the other financier, and Morgan (Perez & Shields get credit). There are lots of songs, some written just for the movie, and, for a change, they are all listed, with composers, on imdb. If you want to listen to some of them, see the reelsoundtrack blog.

There is a bonus after the credits, so stick around. And, during much of the credits, there's a fairly serious slide show about corporate greed that fits with the plot of the movie but not the mood. To bring you back to laughing, read this (with the spoilers clearly marked and avoidable at the end) and this (with spoilers right in your face), preferably after viewing the movie.