We’re not gonna start contacting Criterion or anything, but there’s something to be said about the Will Ferrell-Adam McKay union. While most solo Ferrell endeavors reap largely pathetic rewards, he’s worked with director McKay on “Anchorman,” “Talladega Nights” and “Step Brothers,” a surprisingly fruitful trilogy of American over/underachievements, that carry more value for the Ferrell-haters as a body of work than as individual films (sections of “Talladega” are especially draggy — also, NASCAR is just fucking stupid).
Ferrell’s suiting up again for McKay in “The Other Guys,” formerly “The B-Team,” where he and Mark Wahlberg play a mismatched buddy cop team forced to cooperate inorder to uncover police corruption. They’ve already got an impressive cast including Michael Keaton, Eva Mendes, Damon Wayans Jr. and Craig Robinson, and to that, add Samuel L. Jackson and Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson. Jackson and Johnson will be playing “supercops” according to the Variety description.
Also added to the cast as the villain is Steve Coogan, who’s had a rough go of it matching his success abroad, but this looks like the best opportunity for Americans to finally grasp the talented comedian’s style of humor. Though his involvement does remind us that this project, a broad all-star cop comedy, was done a couple of years ago in “Hot Fuzz.” Can an American version of that story hit the same comedic notes without feeling like a retread? “Fuzz” was mixing the sensibilities of a Bruckheimer action film and an Agatha Christie murder mystery with shades of seventies-actioners like “Freebie and the Bean” (which you finally can, and should, purchase from Warner Bros. Archive collection — such an amazing movie). We think McKay and Ferrell (who actually isn’t co-writing this time) are probably going to skew far less cinema-literate.
As for Johnson and Jackson, the movie might not be great shakes but its bound to be more interesting than their recent work. Johnson, reduced to kiddie film hell, has “The Tooth Fairy” lined up for next January, and he remains attached to an absolutely unnecessary “Johnny Quest” adaptation. Jackson, meanwhile, has a far more interesting slate than usual, with festival hit “Mother and Child,” where he acts, and “Iron Man 2,” where he will resume being bored onscreen.