The Other Guys Vs Righteous Kill

In Righteous Kill, Robert DeNiro and Al Pacino play New York detectives on the trail of a murderer. They’re gruff, cynical, have zero chemistry, look bad in their suits, seem embarrassed to be on the job, and are obviously just going through the motions for their paychecks. And I’m not talking about the detectives. It’s really all so embarrassing. The plot is straight out of one of the lesser thrillers from a couple decades ago, many of which ripped off Pacino’s Sea of Love. It wants us to think it’s Internal Affairs, or Training Day, or Narc, but it’s too far removed from anything I’ve taken seriously in the past to fake it just because the actors are legends. Righteous Kill is poorly executed from start to finish (DeNiro and Pacino have a workout montage, for example), and however long it is (80 minutes? Four hours?), it feels twice as much.

I’d normally not lead off with a movie I hated, but throughout The Other Guys, I kept thinking of Righteous Kill. The Other Guys is a satire of action movies and cop dramas, the kind in which the detectives are usually told to hand in their badges after rogue behavior, survive explosions and car chases, and lead dark, seedy personal lives. The satiric twist of The Other Guys is that the focus is on a pencil-pushing forensic accountant, Allen (Will Ferrell), and his desk partner, an angry, aggressive cop named Terry (Mark Wahlberg), who wants to be out gunning down criminals and sliding around on the hood of a moving car. The idea is that in any other movies, Allen and Terry would just be extras in the background, probably without character names, but here they’re finally given a chance to shine. Of course The Other Guys could have gone much further with the casting, getting a couple too-old-for-this-shit donut-eating character actors. Mark Wahlberg is hardly out of place in an action movie.

The precinct’s resident movie tough guys (Dwayne Johnson and Samuel L. Jackson) die in an accident movie characters would have survived (turns out they can’t fly), leaving the caseload open for cocky newcomers. Terry is convinced he and Allen can take the lead and become the city’s new heroes. And eventually, obviously, they do. Terry is trigger-and-gas-pedal-happy, while Allen is thoughtful and careful. They’re uncovering an investment corruption scandal, which is the perfect kind of action for normally desk-bound cops to bust wide open. Before the big takedown, there are shoot-outs, fist-fights, car chases, and a particularly realistic explosion Terry and Allen are shocked to find is hot, loud and forceful. Allen is especially appalled that movies have been dishonest in their depiction of explosions.

As Terry and Allen attempt to bust the financial criminals (The Other Guys gets some well-deserved digs in at Wall Street), they start to bond somewhat as partners and friends. In one hilarious and visually impressive sequence, they go out drinking for the night in the kind of Irish pub you find in cop movies where a cop with one week left has his retirement party. Eva Mendes plays Allen’s wife; the joke is that he doesn’t know how hot she is, and considers her a nagging ball-and-chain, even though she’s a compassionate genius. Listen, nothing wrong with Eva Mendes, but like Wahlberg’s character surprisingly “becoming” an action star, Mendes playing someone too hot for Will Ferrell isn’t exactly risky casting. I’ve gotten on this soapbox before, but it bears repeating here as well. It’s possible, I’m positive, to find an actress too beautiful to be married to Will Ferrell, but who also stands toe-to-toe with him in terms of comedic timing.  Mendes fairs better than Carla Cugino, however, who faces humiliation after humiliation as the lead female character of Righteous Kill. Her character’s sleeping with DeNiro’s, and she likes it rough. Think about that for a second.

Anyway, The Other Guys works, because its concept barely falters, even once it embraces being an action movie. Ferrell’s Allen, who has a hilariously shady past, becomes fully committed to the idea of solving the crime, even when the captain (Michael Keaton! Michael! Keaton!) takes him and Terry off the case, and reassigns Terry to traffic direction (which he loves).

Will Ferrell and Mark Wahlberg (And MICHAEL KEATON!), luckily, find some realism in their characters, keeping The Other Guys more satire and less spoof. It’s lighter and sillier than Stranger than Fiction, but Ferrell invests his role with just as much heart. The Other Guys was directed by Adam McKay, whom I find one of the more interesting comedy voices out there right now. McKay’s characters, especially those played by his muse, Will Ferrell, often have dark secrets and interests, yet rarely fail to earn our empathy, if not our respect. Ron Burgundy is a misogynistic, shallow imbecile, but you kind of like him, right?

We know McKay can do comedy. How’s the story? Well, it’s certainly no mystery who the bad guy is, or if he’ll be caught, or if the other guys of the title will do the job. But when you look at a ham-fisted movie like Righteous Kill, which has aspirations of importance and the pedigree of legendary actors, and is instead eye-rollingly, groaningly terrible? You’ll be studying the desks in the precinct, trying to figure out who else movie could have been about.

The Other Guys: B

Righteous Kill: D-