Will Ferrell movies aren't known for their restraint, but the silly new "The Other Guys" takes the "throw every idea we have in somewhere" tactic to new territory. It's probably the first Hollywood action comedy to have the final credits accompanied by an infographic sequence worthy of the next high-profile documentary.
The infographic runs down the most jarring statistics in recent financial scandals (did one of the producers lose big to Bernie Madoff?), and you could be forgiven for not really seeing its connection to the movie that just ended.
Yes, the film's villain is some kind of financial charlatan. But as the baddie, Steve Coogan barely gets enough time onscreen to hit his funny-sleazeball notes before we're back to the cops pursuing him. Coogan might as well be an international druglord or an Arizona senator shuttling illegal laborers across the border.
The big joke, after all, is one connected not to today's headlines but to Prohibition-era ones. Just as the murderous Al Capone was felled by the tax code, Coogan's billion-dollar shenanigans are exposed because one nerdy New York police accountant - a buttoned-down, Brillo-haired Will Ferrell - wants to cite him for putting scaffolds on his buildings without a permit.
Ferrell's character is partnered with Mark Wahlberg, a hotshot detective whose career tanked after an incident involving Derek Jeter. Wahlberg's performance isn't as brilliant as some of his other comic and semi-comic turns - he seems to have two settings here, morose or volcanic - but you can hardly blame him for not settling fully into the vibe of Ferrell and longtime writer/director/partner Adam McKay. These collaborators barely seem to know what they're doing themselves much of the time; outsiders just have to leap in and hope (as John C. Reilly has) to find their wavelength.
The mismatched buddy-cop bones of this flick are calcium-deficient, and creak a bit under mildly diverting extras like a goofy-gruff captain (Michael Keaton) and the constant taunting Ferrell and Wahlberg get from the precinct's more swaggering cops (under-utilized talents like Rob Riggle and Bobby Cannavale).
But the mess of a movie does offer laughs. Like "Dinner for Schmucks," it fails to build comic bits upon each other - it feels cut-and-pasted rather than finely honed - but it never runs out of gags that are just funny enough to keep viewers occupied.
Some are old - Ferrell goes haywire in a good cop/bad cop scenario gone awry. And a precious few are inspired, as when Ferrell responds to Wahlberg's insults with a surprisingly long riff about lions and impressively resourceful fish.
But most - like the mysterious appeal Ferrell's polyester-clad accountant has for sexy women, or the way Wahlberg accuses his ballerina ex-girlfriend of being a stripper - hover somewhere in that nearly surreal zone found by writers who just don't worry about suspension of disbelief.
It's familiar territory for the creators of "Anchorman" and "Funny or Die," and Will Ferrell seems likely to hang out here until we stop buying tickets.
'The Other Guys'
Genres: Comedy, Action
Running Time: 107 min
MPAA rating: PG-13
Release Date: Aug 6, 2010
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