Review: The Other Guys Unrated Blu-ray

STUDIO: Sony | DIRECTOR: Adam McKay | CAST: Will Ferrell, Mark Wahlberg, Eva Mendes, Michael Keaton
RELEASE DATE: 12/14/2010 | PRICE: DVD $28.96, Unrated DVD $28.96, Blu-ray $34.96, Blu-ray/DVD combo $38.96
BONUSES: featurettes, mom-entary, deleted scenes, gag reel
SPECS: PG-13 | 107/116 min. | Action comedy | 2.40:1 aspect ratio | DTS-HD audio | English, Portguese and Spanish subtitles

RATINGS (out of 5 dishes): Movie | Audio | Video | Overall

The fourth movie partnership between writer/director Adam McKay (Talladega Nights) and comedian Will Ferrell (Elf), The Other Guys don’t quite reach the same heights — if you can call it that — as the other films, although it tries really hard.

In The Other Guys, McKay turns his comedic pen on buddy cop movies. Ferrell stars as a straight-laced cop who’s partnered with action-hungry Mark Wahlberg (The Lovely Bones). When the department’s hot shot officers (Samuel L. Jackson of Mother and Child and Dwayne Johnson of Tooth Fairy) are killed, Wahlberg has a hard time convincing Ferrell that they can be the next heroes, until the pair accidentally stumble on a case.

Ferrell is his usual funny but bizarre self as a cop who seems more familiar with a calculator than a gun and, much to the dismay of Wahlberg, manages to attract hot women — including Eva Mendes (Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans) as his wife. Wahlberg, on the other hand, seems uncomfortable in his role as the officer who once accidentally shot Derek Jeter and has never been able to live it down. Wahlberg appears angry for most of the movie, and the funny doesn’t quite come through.

Of course, that’s not all Wahlberg’s fault. McKay’s script, co-written with Chris Henchy (Land of the Lost), doesn’t have the zingers of McKay/Ferrell’s Anchor Man or the oddball heart of Step Brothers. Instead, The Other Guys is an action movie that’s trying to be a McKay/Ferrell comedy. It succeeds in some places — like when Jackson drives a car into a bus, then Johnson drives the bus with the car still inside — but others left us just scratching our head.

The unrated version of the movie has nine more minutes of fun, mostly more sex talk between Mendes and Ferrell, but nothing Earth-shattering.

The audio and video quality on the Blu-ray are fine, but this isn’t exactly the type of movie that demands high-definition.

The Blu-ray, however, does bolster the entertainment with a massive amount of special features. Our favorite was the “Why Are Brits In This Movie” piece, with tongue-in-cheek interviews with McKay and Other Guys British co-star Steve Coogan (Percy Jackson). While McKay complains about how difficult is was to work with Brits Coogan and director-of-photography Oliver Wood because of the language barrier, Coogan explains that McKay is a very generous director because he’s always willing to lend you his porn — “in any format.”

Other funny pieces look at actor Rob Riggle (Step Brothers), Wahlberg’s childhood friend who’s now an extreme eater, Michael Keaton improving a scene at Bed Bath and Beyond, how to play chicken with kisses and why “everyone hates the DVD guy” (apparently because he’s always pointing the camera at people, but the joke gets old after the first couple minutes).

One of the more inventive special features is the mom-entary, a commentary by the mother’s of Ferrell, McKay and Henchy. Humor obviously runs in the family as Henchy’s mom talks about the plot of the movie and Ferrell’s mom replies, “At our age, we need to be considering [a different kind of] plots.”

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