A Not-So-Macho Cop’s Moment of Truth (Published 2010) (2024)

Is it possible to run a bait-and-switch scam in reverse? I can’t think of another way to describe the odd trick pulled off by “The Other Guys,” a new goofballs-and-fireballs comedy directed by Adam McKay. The closing credit sequence is, in effect, a tease for a movie quite different from the one that has just concluded.

Bold, brightly colored charts and graphs fill the screen with enraging data about bloated chief-executive bonuses, billion-dollar bank bailouts, Ponzi schemes and other entries in the encyclopedia of modern financial infamy. Looking at these shocking numbers in isolation, you might be tempted to think that you had just watched an angry populist satire skewering the powerful and the privileged. But such topical provocation has been missing from commercial American comedy for a very long time, and “The Other Guys” is no exception. Its plot does feature a devious equity-fund manager (played by the reliable British weasel-for-hire Steve Coogan) and a Wall Street vixen, but the plot is neither the movie’s point nor its most memorable feature.

Instead, Mr. McKay plays to his strengths and those of his frequent collaborator and the movie’s star, Will Ferrell. In other words, “The Other Guys” is most authentically itself when it indulges in a free-form but nonetheless highly disciplined silliness that has the effect of dissolving, rather than piquing, whatever worldly anger or frustration you may be harboring. Once again, and for the first time in a while, Mr. Ferrell uses his big body, his quick mind and his infinitely fungible voice to yoke disparate and ridiculous traits into a brand new and yet instantly archetypal comic character.

Allen Gamble, Mr. Ferrell’s mild-mannered, desk-bound police detective, lacks the pompous aggression of Ron Burgundy in “Anchorman,” the aw-shucks aggression of Ricky Bobby in “Talladega Nights” or the infantile aggression of Brennan Huff in “Step Brothers” (all directed by Mr. McKay). Instead, he is aggressively, ostentatiously, explosively passive — a combustible milquetoast. Gamble is timid, gullible, irresistible to gorgeous women and yet oblivious to their interest. He makes no sense at all, except in the absurd context of the movie’s craziest moments.

When it operates in this nonsensical zone of verbal riffing and broad slapstick (the most inspired example of which is a brawl at a funeral conducted in respectful whispers), “The Other Guys” provides some pretty good laughs. Dwayne Johnson and Samuel L. Jackson make fun of their action-hero personae and then step aside to let Mr. Ferrell and Mr. Wahlberg do their thing. Those two are gracious enough to cede a little room to Michael Keaton, as the leathery precinct captain, and to Rob Riggle and Damon Wayans Jr., as Gamble and Hoitz’s obnoxious squad room rivals.

It all hums along nicely for about 45 minutes, with Eva Mendes showing up for a purring, good-natured turn as Gamble’s wife, Mr. Wahlberg mooning over her and Mr. Ferrell shrugging off her charms. But like the misbegotten “Cop Out,” “The Other Guys” engages in a genre blending that is also a cynical commercial hedge.

Not confident enough to be a loose, nutty spoof of macho cop action movies, it also tries to be one of those movies more or less in earnest. And so the guns are drawn, the mock swaggering becomes a bit less mock, and there is enough vehicular chaos, breaking glass and stuff blowing up to satisfy viewers for whom jokes about tunas, lions, pimps and the improbability of Eva Mendes as a mate for Will Ferrell are likely to be too sophisticated.

“The Other Guys,” apart from the unfulfilled promise of the end credits — it may be that no team can humble the unrepentant fat cats of the financial sector, but it would be nice to give Mr. Ferrell and Mr. Wahlberg a shot — raises expectations that it has no real inclination to fulfill. The movie’s best bits would stand alone nicely on YouTube, or on Funnyordie.com, the comic video boutique of which Mr. McKay is an owner and where he sometimes dabbles in short-form hilarity. A feature film made out of such bits combined with overscaled, unimaginative action sequences will make more money, of course, which is something of a scam in its own right.

“The Other Guys” is rated PG-13 (Parents strongly cautioned). Some swearing, shooting and sexy stuff, all carefully kept within what the ratings board considers teenager-appropriate bounds.

THE OTHER GUYS

Opens on Friday nationwide.

Directed by Adam McKay; written by Mr. McKay and Chris Henchy; director of photography, Oliver Wood; edited by Brent White; music by Jon Brion; production designer, Clayton Hartley; costumes by Carol Ramsey; produced by Mr. McKay, Will Ferrell, Jimmy Miller and Patrick Crowley; released by Columbia Pictures. Running time: 1 hour 47 minutes.

WITH: Will Ferrell (Allen Gamble), Mark Wahlberg (Terry Hoitz), Eva Mendes (Sheila), Michael Keaton (Captain Mauch), Steve Coogan (Ershon), Ray Stevenson (Wesley), Samuel L. Jackson (Highsmith), Rob Riggle (Martin), Damon Wayans Jr. (Fosse) and Dwayne Johnson (Danson).