By Mark HadleyTuesday 7 Sep 2010MoviesReading Time: 2 minutes
The Other Guys
Rating: M
Distributor: Sony
Release Date: September 9
The Other Guys is a surprisingly funny comedy built on a not so surprisingly premise. Will Ferrell and Mark Wahlberg play two misfit detectives in a police department dominated by super-cops. When they stumble upon a major embezzlement, do they have the skills necessary to close the case before the real police turn up?
I think the people who had to make the promotional trailers for The Other Guys would have struggled. What to choose? The entire film is a series of golden, laugh-out-loud moments. Strangely that’s probably also one of this comedy’s weaknesses. The plot line certainly isn’t taxing: good guys get close, bad guys get away, repeat from the beginning. The result is a series of funny moments that all just sit next to each other. Still, I haven’t laughed so much in ages so I can’t complain too loudly.
The Other Guys is a sometimes-subtle, sometimes-slapstick production that will probably generate a lot of ‘quotable humour’ for teen guys and up. My fear that Will Ferrell would turn this into another platform for cringe-worthy sexual humour or blasphemy turned out to be unfounded. There is probably only one queasy moment though, as expected, you do have to put up with a fair amount of language. There is, though, an attempt to turn the jokes towards a positive end. When the film ends, the narrator reminds us that it’s not popularity that should earn our respect – “The people who make the real difference, who get the work done, are not on TV.”
A good night’s entertainment for an audience old enough to know what words not to add o their vocabulary.
Despicable Me
Rating: PG
Distributor: Universal
Release Date: September 9
Steve Carrell voices the despicable Gru in Universal’s new 3D adventure for kids. Gru is an aspiring villain, responsible for dastardly crimes all over the planet. However his latest plans to steal the moon come awry when he becomes responsible for the well-being of three orphaned girls.
Despicable Me is brilliant watching for the kids, big on colour and explosions, but it will be a prod in the conscience for accompanying parents. The storyline takes particular aim at adults who put career before family. Looking back into Gru’s past we discover an overly critical mother and an absent father. Achieving a successful future will require him to relinquish his desire to be the greatest villain of all time and learn to offer the support he never received.
Despicable Me has spent ten weeks in the top ten since its release in the US and is likely to do just as well in the Australian market.