Back Stage

KHAYALETHU MPOFU | Wednesday October 6, 2010 00:00

Starring:  Will Ferrell, Steve Coogan, Samuel L Jackson, Mark Wahlberg, Eva MendezFri/ Sat           14:30  17:30  20:30  23:00Sun to Thurs    14:30  17:30  20:30 Capitol Cinema, Riverwalk

The Other Guys is a comedy flick that is bound to get its viewers rolling out of their seats in laughter. The first thing that came to my mind, when watching this movie is whether the movie would work at all, looking at the actors such as Dwayne Johnson AKA The Rock, a famous wrestler turned Hollywood icon and Will Ferrell, a comedian who has starred in a number of lame comedic movies.  Interestingly, the movie immediately delivers hilarious jokes with wicked punch lines.

The movie begins with a snap shot of the real heroes of the New York Police Department, detective PK Highsmith   (Samuel L Jackson) and detective Christopher Danson (Dwayne Johnson) pursuing a bunch of criminals armed to the teeth with semi-automatics and Uzzis down Park Lane Avenue.

In the process of trying to apprehend the hoodlums, the heroes, sadly, cause a number of accidents.

This scene in the movie is truly epic in that while trying to take the criminals down they crash into a grey hound bus and as a result their car lands inside the bus.

The two get out with the bus still moving and one of them takes over as the driver of the bus and they continue in hot pursuit of the criminals with intensely funny results.

After the award-winning capture of the criminals the legendary cops head back to the station with an award for bravery from the City of New York, and are congratulated by their co-workers.

While the whole police station cheers on, the viewer is introduced to the most unmotivated police officers in New York City, The Other Guys, also known as Allen Gamble (Will Ferrell) and Terry Hoitz (Mark Wahlberg).  Following the introduction of The Other Guys the Super Cops are sent to take down diamond thieves and sadly in their line of duty they end up dying in the most unfortunate way.

However, after the two heroic cops die, fortune smiles on the two partners Allen and Terry as they are destined to become the true heroes as they take down the biggest white collar criminal, who makes Bernie Madlov look like an altar boy, a man by the name of David Ernshon.

For instance Allen Gambles gets into trouble when his fellow cops manage to trick him into doing something stupid with his gun and as a result the detective is given a wooden gun, which he uses to take down a few criminals and beat the stuffing out of Terry Hoitz.

Another funny moment in the movie is the fact that the most masculine cop, Terry Hoitz, turns out to have a feminine side that surfaces when he is faced with a lot of pressure ranging from when he confronts his former girlfriend, to when he explodes in the office. Watching the movie, one can immediately catch that the script is well written. The casting for the movie is also superb as it is spot on.

Surprisingly, the funniest actor in this movie is Mark Wahlberg, who throughout the movie does the funniest things.

For example, he cries at a PTD Post Traumatic Disorder meeting for members of the police department who have fired a gun in the line of duty.  Watching this movie will definitely make one laugh for days and on a scale of 10 it deserves a nine, for its overall awesomeness.