The Other Guys opens with the two best cops in New York falling off a building. Chris Danson and P. K. Highsmith, played by Dwayne Johnson and Samuel L. Jackson, chase jewel thieves across rooftops, cause the usual collateral damage, and then jump to their deaths. The film’s tagline says it plainly: “NY’s finest were busy.”
That leaves a desk. Allen Gamble, a forensic accountant who prefers paperwork to peril, and Terry Hoitz, a hot-tempered detective who shot Derek Jeter during the World Series, get their shot. Adam McKay directed and co-wrote the film with Chris Henchy. It runs 107 minutes.
Trailer, via Sony Pictures Entertainment.
Allen Gamble and Terry Hoitz
Will Ferrell plays Allen as a man who genuinely enjoys forensics. Mark Wahlberg plays Terry as a man who has been waiting years to do anything at all. The pairing works because neither actor is asked to carry the comedy alone. Ferrell underplays the quiet, and Wahlberg supplies the noise.
The plot starts small and gets large. Allen wants to investigate a scaffolding permit violation. Terry wants a real case. A seemingly minor case turns out to be a big deal, and the two cops get the chance to prove to their comrades they have the right stuff.
The case turns on $32 billion Ershon lost for his client, Lendl Global. The company’s CEO, Pamela Boardman, has hired Wesley to make sure Ershon pays it back. That number is the spine of the movie, and the film treats it with the seriousness the rest of the plot refuses.
Sheila, Christinith, and the Gator
Terry visits Allen’s house and meets Sheila, Allen’s wife, a doctor played by Eva Mendes. He is stunned. The film plays the joke straight: the boring guy married well, and nobody can explain it.
The two then visit Christinith, Allen’s ex-girlfriend, played by Natalie Zea, to hear a voice message Allen’s phone received during the kidnapping. On the recording, Ershon tells Wesley his plan to cover the loss. It is the one scene where the case actually moves.
Then Allen confesses. He ran a prostitution ring in college. He developed a second personality called “Gator.” He landed in the hospital, met Sheila there, and joined the NYPD to keep Gator down. This is the film’s strangest swing, and it commits to it.
Captain Gene Mauch and the SEC
Michael Keaton plays Captain Gene Mauch, who orders Allen and Terry to hand their evidence to the Securities and Exchange Commission. Keaton is the film’s steady hand. He does not chase the joke. He lets it come to him.
The supporting cast is deep. Rob Riggle plays Martin. Damon Wayans Jr. plays Fosse. Lindsay Sloane plays Francine. Anne Heche appears uncredited as Pamela Boardman. Ice-T narrates, also uncredited.
Josef Sommer plays District Attorney Radford, uncredited, a role the source notes is an homage to his first film part 39 years earlier in Dirty Harry, where he also played a district attorney.
The Ferrell-McKay Run
The Other Guys is the fourth of five Ferrell-McKay collaborations. It follows Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy in 2004, Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby in 2006, and Step Brothers in 2008. It precedes Anchorman 2: The Legend Continues in 2013.
It is the only one of the five not co-written by Ferrell. It is also the first of three Ferrell-Wahlberg pairings, ahead of Daddy’s Home in 2015 and Daddy’s Home 2 in 2017.
The numbers behind The Other Guys
- Release date: August 6, 2010 (United States)
- Runtime: 107 minutes
- Worldwide gross: $170 million
- Metacritic: 64/100
- Published critical score: 6.4/10
- Ershon’s loss for Lendl Global: $32 billion
- Ferrell-McKay collaborations: five total; this is the fourth
- Sommer’s return to the District Attorney role: 39 years after Dirty Harry
How The Other Guys compares
| Element | The Other Guys | Earlier Ferrell-McKay films |
|---|---|---|
| Year | 2010 | 2004, 2006, 2008 |
| Co-written by Ferrell | No | Yes |
| Director | Adam McKay | Adam McKay |
| Co-writer | Chris Henchy | Ferrell and McKay |
| Ferrell’s role | Forensic accountant | Anchorman, race car driver, stepbrother |
| Runtime | 107 minutes | Not given in source |
The table shows the pattern. McKay and Ferrell built a run of comedies where Ferrell wrote his own lines and played a loud man in a loud world. The Other Guys breaks that. Ferrell is the quiet one here, and Henchy shares the writing credit.
What the film gets right, and what it wastes
The Other Guys is a buddy cop comedy that understands the assignment. It takes the two least interesting men in the precinct and gives them the case nobody wanted. The joke is that the case is enormous. The $32 billion figure is not a gag. It is the reason the movie has stakes.
The film’s best idea is that Allen is not boring. He is contained. The Gator monologue is the proof, and Ferrell plays it without winking. Terry, meanwhile, is a man defined by one mistake he cannot outrun. Wahlberg plays the frustration clean, and the two men balance each other because each is missing what the other has.
The film’s worst idea is that it does not always know when to stop. The mercenaries, the bomb in the suburban accounting office, the escalating danger — these are plot mechanics, and the movie treats them as obligations. The comedy lives in the rooms, not in the chases.
Keaton is the tell. He plays Mauch as a man who has seen everything and is tired of all of it. He gets the film’s tone better than the film does. Mendes has less to do than the role deserves; Sheila is a doctor and a punchline, and the movie never decides which.
The cameos are a mixed bag. Derek Jeter plays himself, which is the joke the whole plot hangs on. Brooke Shields and Rosie Perez and Tracy Morgan play themselves. Ice-T narrates. These are pleasant, not load-bearing.
The Other Guys is a good comedy with a stronger premise than execution. It is the fourth of five Ferrell-McKay films and the only one Ferrell did not write, and you can feel the difference. The voice is McKay’s and Henchy’s, and it is a little more controlled, a little less wild, than the films around it.
That control is the point. The movie is about two men who are not the heroes, and it treats them with the seriousness of a real case. The $32 billion is real. The danger is real. The joke is that nobody noticed them until it was.
It earns its place in the run without topping it. The premise is sharp, the cast is deep, and the film knows what it is. It just does not always trust the room to carry the scene.
Get the Notebook.
The day's best stories and every fresh verdict, in plain English, in your inbox by seven. One email a day, no more.
