The Other Guys: Difference between revisions

A 2010 Adam McKay action comedy that satirizes the [[Buddy Cops]] picture.

''The Other Guys'' focuses on two New York City police detectives Allen Gamble and Terry Hoitz ([[Will Ferrell]] and [[Mark Wahlberg]]) that have been office pencil pushers for years, while the station's two top cops Highsmith and Danson ([[Samuel L. Jackson]] and [[Dwayne Johnson|Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson]]) garner praise from not only the NYPD, but from the entire city for their cowboy, take-no-prisoners antics. After an unforeseen event forces the department to bring two new cops to the forefront to deal with a corporate embezzlement scheme, our two mismatched desk jockeys finally get the chance to prove their mettle and show that they can save the day.... all without getting each other killed or driving each other crazy.

{{quote| '''Terry''': If we were in the wild, I would attack you. Even if you weren't in my food chain, I would go out of my way to attack you. If I were a lion and you were a tuna, I would swim out in the middle of the ocean and freakin' eat you! And then I'd bang your tuna girlfriend.<br />

'''Allen''': Okay, first off: a lion? Swimming in the ocean? Lions don't like water. If you'd placed it near a river or some sort of fresh water source, that'd make sense. But you find yourself in the ocean, twenty foot waves, I'm assuming it's off the coast of South Africa, coming up against a full-grown, 800 pound tuna with his twenty or thirty friends? You lose that battle. You lose that battle nine times out of ten. }}

* [[Badass Bystander]]: {{spoiler|The villains' helicopter is taken down with the help of some driving range patrons.}}.

* [[Badass Driver]]: He learned it from ''[[Grand Theft Auto]]''.

{{quote| '''Hoitz''': Did you shout 'America' back there?<br />

'''Gamble''': [[Blatant Lies|No, of course not. Why would I shout 'America'?]] }}

* [[Black Dude Dies First]]: [[Samuel L. Jackson]] and [[Dwayne Johnson]]'s supercopsuper-cop characters have this happen to them early in the flick, when one of their death defying moments of glory goes horribly wrong. They leap off a building with no conveniently placed item to break their fall.

* [[Black Helicopter]]: (andAnd two unmarked white vans).

* [[Bloodless Carnage]]: To be expected in any comedy movie, but when {{spoiler|Danson and Highsmith fall 20 stories and the only thing to crack is the pavement, you know a line has been crossed.}}.

* [[Brick Joke]]: In the beginning of the film, Will Ferrell's character is convinced to do a "desk pop". When he fires his gun in Mark Wahlberg's apartment, he offhandedly says "Apartment pop". The [[Binge Montage]] even has a couple of "bar pops".

** [[Everything's Better with Bob|Bob.]] Just Bob. First he gets yelled at by Terry just for asking him to come to a conference; then we see him at {{spoiler|the board meeting, about to invest the police pension fund}}; then finally when Wesley is apprehended, {{spoiler|he's one of the cops with their guns on him.}}.

** After Ershon learns that Gamble calls himself "Gator,", he is shown in prison wearing a T-shirt bearing the logo of the University of Florida Gators.

* [[By-The-Book Cop]]: Detective Gamble.

** {{spoiler|The jewelry store robbery.}}.

** To be fair, [[Weirdness Magnet|there's always something wrong with those women]].

* [[Click. "Hello."]]: Done to a harmless clerk during the climax.

* [[A Date with Rosie Palms]]: When Gamble &and Hoitz first go to Ershon's office, he's watching [[Hentai]] on his laptop, and has trouble turning it off.

* [[Deconstructive Parody]]: Definitely leans in this direction. In particular, Danson and Highsmith are presented as [[Jerk Sue]] characters for satirical effect, and they are one of many elements that lead to [[Conversational Troping]] of cop movie tropes not fitting real life. Not to mention the message at the end to the effect of "Corrupt Corporate Executives as the real criminals"."

* [[Domestic Abuse]]: He never gets physical, but Allen Gamble ([[Moral Dissonance|one of the heroes]]) is emotionally abusive to his wife to a rather disturbing extent, vigorously and repeatedly insulting her physical appearance, sense of style, cooking ability and calling her an adulterer and whore when she reveals that she is pregnant. This occurs both in private and in the presence of others. He later explains that he does this all because he fears that, if she ever realizes how truly beautiful she is, she will leave him; this makes things ''worse'', since it shows that he is aware that his actions are wrong and is [[Moral Dissonance|deliberately traumatizing his wife for his own ends]]. It is not [[Played for Laughs]], it does not set up an [[Aesop]], it is just... awful.

* [[Dropped a Bridge on Him]]: You gotta wonder how [[Samuel L. Jackson]] and [[Dwayne Johnson]] could sign on for a movie where {{spoiler|their characters are killed in the first twenty minutes over a stupidly hilarious stunt gone horribly awry.}}.

* [[Drugs Are Bad]]: Subverted. {{spoiler|Hoitz keeps thinking that all the crimes/criminals are drug related when in fact they are white collar financial crimes.}}. Also {{spoiler|Danson and Highsmith cause millions of dollars worth of damage chasing after some guys who only have a small amount of marijuana on them.}}.

* [[Edutainment Show]]: The [https://web.archive.org/web/20100816124056/http://insidemovies.moviefone.com/2010/08/09/other-guys-end-credits-sequence-video/ end credits] has a rather informative animated slideshow about Big Company corruption.

* [[Epic Fail]]: With Danson and Highsmith {{spoiler|"Aim for the bushes"}}.

{{quote| "Mr. Ershon, Detective Gamble and the officer who shot Derek Jeter here."}}

** Also parodied when they {{spoiler|interrogate Ershon in his office}}.

* [[Hellish Copter]]: A helicopter gets taken out by a volley of ''[[Lethal Joke Character|golf balls]].''.

*** Note during the ballet scene he's inexplicably ''wearing jazz shoes.''.

* [[I Know Mortal Kombat]]: "Where did you learn to drive like that?" "''Grand Theft Auto''!"

* [[Improbable Aiming Skills]]: Hoitz can shoot down an overhead banner to take down motorcyclists pursuing him. {{spoiler|Wesley can pull off three nonfatal shots in rapid succession (at close range no doubt, but making them ''nonfatal'' at that rate is harder than you'd think).}}.

** Well, the latter is not so improbable for a {{spoiler|ex-special forces professional bodyguard}}.

* [[Insult Backfire]] / [[Sidetracked by the Analogy]]: Involving lions and tuna.

* [[Karma Houdini]]: {{spoiler|Pamela Boardman when she gets a bailout}}.

* [[Little Useless Gun]]: Literally. Gamble's real gun is replaced by a wooden prop and then {{spoiler|thatsthat's taken away and replaced with a rape whistle.}}.

* [[Metaphorgotten]]: Hoitz expresses the belief that "I'm a peacock! You gotta let me fly!" Numerous characters point out that that doesn't make any sense, notably because peacocks can't fly {{spoiler|but one does at the end for [[What Do You Mean Its Not Symbolic|symbolism]] and [[Rule of Funny]]}}.

** Actually, it becomes apparent that {{spoiler|Hoitz is masking his gentle side with juvenile antics while Gamble's self-imposed control hides a borderline psychotic personality}}.

* [[Not the Fall That Kills You]]: '''Subverted.'''.

** In one scene, Gamble is drinking Mike's Hard Lemonade. Another has Gamble and Hoitz practically shilling ''Jersey Boys''.

** And ''[[Grand Theft Auto]]''.

* [[The Real Heroes]]: The Aesop of the movie is that the real heroes are the ones who genuinlygenuinely make the world a better place, instead of doing more harm than good and still getting in the paper for being big and flashy like Highsmith and Danson

** Becomes an [[Ironic Echo]] when it happens to both Hoitz and Gamble later on. While Hoitz learns to mellow out for the first time in his life, Gamble [[Took a Level Inin Badass]].

* [[Running Gag]]: Captain Mauch [[Waxing Lyrical|unwittingly quoting lyrics]] from the band [[TLC]] with Detective Hoitz and Gamble's disbelief that he's doing it by accident.

** Random attractive women being into Gamble. ([[Averted Trope|Exceptexcept Terry's girlfriend.]]).

*** Not merely 'attractive' but explictlyexplicitly 'hot' (iei.e. sexy) women; Terry's girlfriend is played by Lindsay Sloane who, though pretty, is more of an [[Girl Next Door|understated attractiveness]] than the obvious babes that seem to fall for Gamble.

** Gamble's Prius being used for [[Hobo]] orgies.

* [[Sensitive Guy and Manly Man]]: Gamble and Hoitz, of course. {{spoiler|Then gradually Deconstructed.}}.

* [[Serious Business]]: What does Hoitz do, when he and Gamble are in shock after the the nearby explosion and Gamble shouts that the destruction of the Death Star was all but realistic? Warn him not to bad-mouth ''[[Star Wars]]'', of course.

* [[Soundtrack Dissonance]]: [[Foo Fighters]]' "My Hero" just before {{spoiler|two heroic cops jump 20 stories straight into the sidewalk.}}.

* [[Super-Powered Evil Side]]: Gator for {{spoiler|Allen}}.

** Subverted in that, {{spoiler|thought Hoitz and Gamble ended up becoming heroes for exposing the white collar crime that was going to bankrupt the police pension fund, they don't become the heroic replacement super cops. They stay the Other Guys, who the film makes out to be the real heroes: the guys who don't look spectacular saving the day, but do it nonetheless.}}.

* [[Testosterone Poisoning]]: The two supercopssuper-cops.

* [[There Was a Door]]: our heroes crash the Prius through the garage door rather than ''let Ershon open it first.''.

* [[Too Dumb to Live]]: {{spoiler|Danson and Highsmith}}.

* [[True Art Is Incomprehensible]]: Zigzagged. In the unrated version, they parody modern art with a coffee table with junk on it, then it turns out Hoitz understands the "artsy-fartsy" piece better than his artistically inclined ex does and still thinks its crap. Then his genuine tirade is critiqued and cheered on as if it was provocative performance piece.

{{quote| '''Terry:''' "Seriously, who ''is'' she?"}}

{{quote| ''How do they walk away in movies without flinching when it explodes behind them? There's NO WAY!''}}

* [[Unusual Euphemism]]: "Soup kitchen".

** Averted with Gamble, who still calls it a "dating service".

{{quote| "That was no pimp... [[Overly Long Gag|Pimps don't cry."]]}}

* [[What Do You Mean It's Not Awesome?]]: Gamble's app, "Faceback.". Though being able to construct the back of someone's head from photos of their face is an amazing technical achievement. {{spoiler|The fact that [[Chekhov's Gun|it also works in reverse]] subverts this somewhat.}}.

* [[World of Cardboard Speech]]: {{spoiler|Gamble/Gator gets one of these when he allows himself to lose control (just a little).}}.

* [[Would Hit a Girl]]: Of the hero being willing to hit a villainess kind. We don't actually ''see'' Hoitz hit the Brazilian [[Dark Action Girl]] but he does so hard enough that she's still unconscious several minutes later.

** And Highsmith and Danson are, of course, {{spoiler|not prepared to live outside a Bad Boys-esque action-thriller.}}.