The cop saga

Punctuated with the right dashes of humour, the pair of totally mismatched
New York cops in The Other Guys is sure to keep you smiling

THERE are cop pairs and there are other cop twosomes, varying in magnitude and madness. Lethal Weapon duo of Mel Gibson and Danny Glover are probably the most popular with their contrasting personas but easily one of the maddest is Will Farrell and Mark Wahlberg and in The Other Guys they only confirm it in their fourth effort with Farrell and Adam McKay together. The earlier ones were Anchorman, Talladega Nights and Step Brothers and they keep getting better and better.

It is a tossed salad and don’t look for an iota of sense in the action. Attempting to set up an odd-couple comedy genre, the plot deals with a pair of totally mismatched New York cops. One (Farrell) is a mild-mannered sort, who seems quite absorbed in his paperwork. The other (Wahlberg), by contrast, is hotheaded action man, who has been demoted to the dull desk after goofing up and killing a celebrity. Not surprisingly, he is hell-bent on getting back to the mean streets.

When the city’s coolest veteran cops (Samuel L. Jackson and Dwayne Johnson) fall victim to their own arrogance, it is this dim nitwit pair, who stumble upon the action (a familiar gag in cop comedies) and an important case of fraud. Ill at ease, they look desperately for help and do not know that it is a long time coming.

But meanwhile, they come across some exciting cameos, which keep the attention span going punctuated with the right dashes of humour. At the receiving end is cop captain Michael Keaton and another cop’s gorgeous wife Eva Mendes provides the romantic spark.

Director McKay manages to get his narrative chugging along, thanks to the chemistry of the cop duo, who are natural jokers. Not easy today in these days of slapstick farce. Then Anne Heche and Brooke Shields (remember the 1980s Calvin Klein ad "you know what comes between me and my jeans`85 nothing") make their brief but nostalgic appearances. All said and done The Other Guys is well worth watching. You won’t regret it.

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