Culture Blues

The Other Guys and the Action Homage

The other guys indeed.

I love action movies. The Tournament recently conducted on this website is a direct result of the collective appreciation this website has for the genre. And as someone who knows better than to take any genre of film too seriously, I like to see people poke fun at action movies (lovingly of course, not derisively – I hate that shit). So, I’m always on the lookout for the movie that will finally successfully make fun of the conventions of action movies while being a successful action movie in its own right. Perhaps to even take the genre to untold heights. I’m looking for someone to do for action movies what Scream and Shaun of the Dead did for horror movies. I’ll be damned if I didn’t think Edgar Wright and Simon Pegg (the creative forces behind Shaun) would do it with Hot Fuzz. Turns out, that movie sucks. And it still resides too much in horror land for it to be a proper action anything.

Last Action Hero, of course, is one of the most explicit attempts at this, lampooning action movies in a very direct (and metaphysical) way. The portions of Last Action Hero that take place in the action movie world are terrific and do many of the things my ideal action homage would do. The sections in the real world, on the other hand, are a bit limp. There have been other movies in the same vein as Hot Fuzz and Last Action Hero, but no one has nailed it yet. So, it’s with a great deal of anticipation and trepidation that I give you the trailer for The Other Guys:

It’s common for a movie trailer to make you think it’s one thing, before abruptly announcing it’s something else entirely. The first rule of this strategy, though, ought to be to make sure the movie you tease us with doesn’t look more promising than the movie you’re actually selling. Tell me that The Rock and Samuel L. Jackson over-the-top supercop buddy movie doesn’t look fantastic. It’s  perfectly cast. It features a delightful combination of big time stunt work and cheesy, B-movie looking, green screen effects. It’s terrific.

Then Will Ferrell shows up and does what Will Ferrell does. Which is squeeze jokes with an inhuman strength until all the laughs are gone and it actually starts to hurt. The “Will Ferrell playing bad cop” scene. The “Will Ferrell commenting at length on how unrealistic movie explosions are while he’s supposedly in great pain” scene. It all looks like a bit much. Then there’s Mark Wahlberg sliding down a table in slow motion shooting everybody. What’s the deal? Is he a secret (or unknowing) supercop? Is he going to slide all the way down the table and not hit anybody? Either way, is there anything funny or cool about a slow motion shot of someone firing two pistols at this point? Haven’t we had enough?

Say what you will, The Big Hit has legit action.

I certainly have not given up all hope for The Other Guys. The Rock/Jackson team may be heavily involved and I’m a fan of both, or perhaps I was a fan of both until one started cashing Disney checks and the other went from self-aware hilarity to self parody pathetic. Mark Wahlberg is capable of action and humor in his own ridiculous deadpan way. He was, indeed, the star of one of the greatest action movie/action parodies out there – The Big Hit (24kt gold standees in every theater!). And then there’s Will Ferrell. Will Ferrell is a very funny guy capable of some pretty epic comedic feats. But we haven’t seen that recently, at least I haven’t. He’s been too busy making the quadrilogy of  “(blank) Man” movies and Step Brothers.

Which brings me to, without a doubt, the most disheartening thing about The Other Guys, Adam McKay. Adam fucking McKay. The man who directed the painfully unfunny and just plain stupid Step Brothers. The man who has led Will Ferrell’s career into the cultural toilet. The man who helped give us Funny or Die, which has actually become a pretty awesome outlet for on-a-whim projects from Hollywood cut-ups. Maybe it’s just that I still have the terrible after taste of Step Brothers in my mouth 2 years later (I loathe that movie in case you couldn’t tell), but I think action comedies of late have been going about it all wrong. They start with the comedy part and think that car chases and shootouts will satisfy the action fans. It should be the other way around. Get a script with some potentially comic situations. Hire good actors capable of humor. Let them worry about the laughs. Then get a director who’s capable of crafting tense and exciting action sequences. Frankly, it doesn’t seem all that hard.

Oh well, ever the optimist, I’d like to leave you with a little more good news. The cast includes Eva Mendes, Michael Keaton, Steve Coogan, Rob Riggle, Rob Huebel (“I’m the dude with the suit, waving”), David Wallace from The Office and Derek Jeter.