Blaine: I wasn’t that interested in seeing “The Other Guys” because it looked like just another comedy, but a couple friends of mine were really interested in seeing it. “The Other Guys” turned out to be very very funny. It was the funniest comedy I saw that year. The whole theater was laughing hard and there was times it was hard for me to have a moment to breathe because you were laughing so hard. And my drink came out my nose because it was hard to swallow.
Plot(Spoiler Alert)
Two New York City police detectives who have opposite personalities try to get themselves out there in a big case instead of sitting behind a desk.
Blaine: Adam McKay said that he’s done some silly movies like “Step Brothers” and “Anchorman” and he described “The Other Guys” as more of a badass movie. Adam came up with this idea of these two misfits who are the opposite of each other and are on the force, but don’t get any respect or glory. Mark Wahlberg’s character is seeking it and wants to get out there instead of sitting behind a desk whereas Will Ferrell’s character really enjoys being an office worker. Both Adam McKay and Will Ferrel thought of Mark Wahlberg as someone who is quietly underrated in terms of being funny in some of the roles he has done. Will said there are certain movies when you watch Mark and he really makes you laugh so they thought pairing Will and Mark could be really funny. Mark was uncomfortable doing a comedy at first, but he was very comfortable doing the action.
This is Adam McKay and Will Ferrell's fourth movie they’ve worked on together after “Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy”, “Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby” and “Step Brothers”. They’ve been writing and working together since 1995 and Adam knows that Will has a famous temper. There is parts about Will that Adam doesn’t like such as his grotesque levels, his tendency to check out, just walk away from an emotional conversation. Their relationship isn’t pretty because of the yelling and physical abuse, but Adam and Will get through it.
Adam has fun working with actors who he has never worked with before and he creates an environment where everyone feels like they can’t really make a mistake. Adam and the others couldn’t believe it when Samuel L. Jackson and Dwayne Johnson came onboard and the reason they got hired to be apart this project was because Adam felt they could do a big action movie with those two. They play the superstar cops in New York who do all the car chases and bust all the big time criminals, but they cause a lot of property damage and destruction while doing it and so they’re actually dangerous as well.
Adam didn’t really care of who was a big shot to play the other two guys who are competing against Will and Mark’s characters to make something big for themselves. All they had to be was really funny. Adam had worked with Rob Riggle before in “Step Brothers” and he knew he was one of the funniest guys around so that is why Adam was excited to have him on board for “The Other Guys". Adam knew Damon Wayans Jr. was going to be a big star after he auditioned. He thought Damon was just funny, cool and had the looks of a leading man.
Michael Keaton was a treat for Adam because before Keaton became a super star for playing Batman, Adam loved his comedic days for being in movies like “Beetlejuice” and “Night Stuff”. They were the kind of movies Adam would watch over and over again. Adam said that Michael Keaton would go for those comedic bits fast and got it immediately before they shot a scene.
Adam loved it that Ray Stevenson provided this threatening straight line to his character and at the same time be funny. Adam knew that Eva Mendes had to play the wife of Will Ferrell’s character because basically the role was written for her. Eva wanted to play this character. She would come onset prepared knowing her lines and then Adam would throw this craziness at her and then Will would take over. It was a lot of fun for her because she felt it was creative.
Adam McKay loves action-comedy when it’s done well and he felt the action in “The Other Guys” had to be really cool, badass and interesting to watch. Adam wanted there to be action scenes that have never been seen before that had a twist to them like the shootout at the driving range.
At the beginning of “The Other Guys” it shows Dwayne Johnson and Samuel L. Jackson chasing after drug dealers and there car crashes into a bus. Then they follow the dealers with the bus and the bus hits a taxi causing the car to fly out and blow up Trump Tower. They did a number of tests for that scene, but they weren’t sure what was going to happen at first like how it was going to look. They tested the car out in certain speeds and the first test they did with it crashing into Trump Tower wasn’t good enough. So they had a wire hold the car the second time and it worked perfectly.
Samuel and Dwayne’s characters end up getting themselves killed while trying to go after some professional thugs. The thugs zip line down the top of the building to the ground and they cut the line so that Samuel and Dwayne can’t catch them. So those two decide to jump 100 feet down to the ground so they can land on some bushes like it’s a stunt airbag. The stuntmen would be held by a crane and once they would go down 100 feet people on the street thought those two really jumped because it looked real and some people were calling 911.
My rating on “The Other Guys” is five out of five stars.
