The Other Guys

[MacGuffin]

Trailer here.

Release Date: August 6, 2010

Starring: Will Ferrell, Mark Wahlberg, Dwayne Johnson, Samuel L. Jackson and Steve Coogan

Directed by: Adam McKay

Premise: Detective Allen Gamble is a forensic accountant who's more interested in paperwork than hitting the streets. Detective Terry Hoitz is a tough guy who has been stuck with Allen as his partner ever since an unfortunate run-in with Derek Jeter. Allen and Terry idolize the city's top cops, Danson and Highsmith, but when an opportunity arises for the Other Guys to step up, things don't quite go as planned.

[picolas]

uuuGGHGHGHGHGHGHGHHHGGHHHHHH

i would rather see a movie about sam jackson and the rock dealing with the manslaughter of the tourists sitting in that double-decker bus. how are they so confident they didn't just kill a bunch of people?

[Captain of Industry]

uuuGGHGHGHGHGHGHGHHHGGHHHHHH

i would rather see a movie about sam jackson and the rock dealing with the manslaughter of the tourists sitting in that double-decker bus. how are they so confident they didn't just kill a bunch of people?

Oh hell yeah.  And they travel to Tibet.  Maybe they could get lost on their way there in a Bermuda-like Triangle of guilt and denial and WWII bombers and Egyptian kings and stuff.  Shit writes itself.

[Reinhold]

 i can't really criticize a trailer for pacing issues, but you can tell that that was more of a collection of bites than an indication of how it'll play out. i expect the film will be a lot funnier than that trailer. i saw bits of it (mostly effects sequences and the crew gag reel) and i have to say I'm actually really excited about this movie.

[diggler]

michael keaton!?

mark wahlberg should only do comedies.

[Stefen]

Classic straight laced cop with a loose cannon partner.

I'm in.

[Pubrick]

here's a scary thought:

millions of ppl are gonna watch this and love it. they're gonna say "this is the best film i've seen since COP OUT, that was fucking awesome!" these DUDES (almost exclusively) will quote lines from the film on the way home with their significant others "he's flying!! HAHAHA! and then and then and then -- oh and then he GOES SPLAT!!" while their wives or girlfriends will wish for Sandra Bullock to come out of hiding and make another movie cos The Blind Side was the best thing they'd all seen since Couples Retreat.

a scary fact:

the majority, and i mean VAST majority of ppl who go to the movies love shit like this. they love Tim Burton who they just discovered after Planet of the Apes which they thought was an original concept, they hadn't heard of woody allen before he worked with Scarlett Johansson and even then didn't actually see one of his movies until Vicky Cristina Barcelona which they called "Vicky Chris..ehh Bars.... the one with Penelope Cruz --- it's in ENGLISH right?" when buying their tickets to see it. they hadn't heard of Martin Scorsese until Gangs of New York which they fell asleep watching even tho they tell their friends they loved it because in the real world (where all these ppl live, unlike us) as in our small dellusional hub of film-snobbery (and i am not against snobbery, in fact, i think it's a basic human right) they consider themselves somewhat sophisticated to be able to say they saw a film from *GASP* ten years ago and still remember the name of it.

and you know what? Scorsese is now making films for these ppl. he likes success. woodsy allen claims to not care about his fans or even about his films once they're made and the quality of the shit he puts out certainly confirms this. everyone is making movies for these ppl because they are the ones actually watching them. awards and critical appraisals belong in history books, and no one in real life has ever read a history book since they were forced to in high school, and they sure as hell would never bother now.

this film is part of the real world.

we are not.

[polkablues]

You know what's a good movie? Hot Fuzz. Maybe I'll just watch that again.

[pete]

I didn't read all of what P said but the consensus seems to be that this is gonna be an atrocious film that attracts the wrong audience - but I always liked adam mckay.  I hated the Hangover guy but Adam McKay lets his actors improv a lot and his DVDs are always full of little deleted gems.

[©brad]

this film is part of the real world.

we are not.

Very true, but has this not always been the case?

I was talking to a friend recently about this and he was convinced these "real world" morons are solely responsible for the dreck that Hollywood shamelessly shits out because ultimately we vote with our $$ and if more people paid to see quality films more quality films would get made. I argued that it was more Hollywood's fault for creating this jackass audience in the first place, by greatly underestimating the collective IQ of the nation, dumbing everyone way the fuck down and thus reducing attention spans to that of a lab rat. And now that every big dumb movie is now chasing unstable, Avatarian revenue streams, empty joints like Clash of the Titans have to play on 15 out of 16 screens at every goddamn multiplex while smaller smart movies don't stand a chance.

Point being - dumb movies will continue to get made and audiences will continue to get dumber. But whatever, TV is where it's at now anyway.

[polkablues]

Who would have guessed we would reach a point where it would become easier to find smart, artistically satisfying television than to find smart, artistically satisfying movies?

For the record, though, I do think this looks pretty funny. Adam McKay deserves the benefit of the doubt, even if Step Brothers sucked. I doubt I'll go to the theater for this, but I'll definitely see it eventually, which is more than I can say for Cop Out.

[modage]

At least it's not a sports comedy!

[pete]

I dunno if the audience is getting dumber.  they're much more accepting of subtitles, handheld cameras, and absurdist humor than just mere five or six years ago.  this movie doesn't really seem that horrible to me either.  not sure why.

[Ravi]

i would rather see a movie about sam jackson and the rock dealing with the manslaughter of the tourists sitting in that double-decker bus. how are they so confident they didn't just kill a bunch of people?

The film will probably be funnier than the trailer (though this trailer was funnier than all of Cop Out), but yeah, I want to see the tourist manslaughter film more.

[Captain of Industry]

Who would have guessed we would reach a point where it would become easier to find smart, artistically satisfying television than to find smart, artistically satisfying movies?

While the artistry of television production has broadened over the years (why wouldn't it have?), I don't at all think it has supplanted or even surpassed the level of artistry in contemporary filmmaking.  This debate shouldn't be framed against the likes of The Other Guys, and not because it's a middlebrow comedy, but simply because it isn't an excellent example of visual storytelling.

Is there a television moment, for example, which can match the twelve minute sunrise which begins Silent Light?  Is there a television show which sustains an atmosphere comparable to 35 Shots of Rum?  How are elusive focal points manifesting themselves in contemporary television?  What show is matching the surreal sensuality of Weerasethakul's films?  And what television show is as regional, home-brewed, and idiosyncratic as contemporary American independent films (Jacobs, Bujalski, Katz, etc)?  Etc etc.

I wouldn't even agree with your assertion on a national level, but broadened to an international level, and with visual storytelling in mind, films are a world of difference.  The respective vanguards in each medium are admirably and invigoratingly exploring their own unique avenues of storytelling, but I don't see them doing the same things at all.  I don't see methods of visual storytelling being progressed in television, in comparison to what's happening in cinema.