Ben Stiller and Owen Wilson star in this campy remake of the campy 70s cop show. The basic plot? Well, basically the plot for every buddy movie or series since the Odd Couple. A gung-ho over-the-top serious cop is teamed up with a laid-back takes-nothing-serious cop and hilarity ensues. Add in a dash of Snoop Dogg as the "urban informer" Huggy Bear and you have a winner on your hands, right? Well, not exactly. Okay, then, we'll throw in Vince Vaughn as the villian, the best man for smarmy double-talk and innuendoed meanness. He was brilliant in ANCHORMAN, so he must complete the package here, right?! Um, no. Okay, then we'll put the icing on this cake! We'll throw in a significant cameo by the Vice President of Comedy himself, Will Farrell, as a hilarious prison informant for the dynamic duo, who gets them into all kinds of compromising positions while being his zany self. That makes for a perfect comedy, right?!!! Nope.
The problem with this film is not that it is lacking a great cast. It is not that the premise is lacking. It is not even that the script has no potential. It is just that it is pretty clear in every actor's performance what this film was to them: A PAYCHECK. No actor in this film really goes for the gold. Ben Stiller plays... well... the default Ben Stiller role of the serious but confused and therefore funny protagonist. Frankly, he seemed to be replaying ZOOLANDER at times. Owen Wilson plays Owen Wilson. Seriously. I am not sure he even had to change his wardrobe for this one, or brush his hair. Vince Vaughn is a little better as the villain, but I never got the sense that he was being anyone other than Vince Vaughn carrying a gun with blanks in it. And Will Farrell... well... he is funny - no doubt about it - but no funnier than an average night from his Saturday Night Live days. Frankly, I found the brief cameo at the end from the original actors from the TV series funnier than any of the comic gags earlier on.
Overall, STARSKY AND HUTCH is not a bad film. There are plenty of laughs, and lots of beautiful women to appreciate. But it definitely one of those films that will be forgotten in six months, because even for the actors it was merely a way-station and paycheck on the road between the interesting movies.
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