Starsky & Hutch

The tale of two oddball police detectives who have a habit of getting stuck in awkward situations even with the best of intentions. Starsky (Ben Stiller) is very much by-the-book – embarrassingly so – whereas Hutch has a laid back rather ‘hippy' approach to the rules. One of the films great strengths is that it plays on satire and keeps the action secondary. The two main characters are ably aided and abetted by Huggy Bear (Snoop Dogg) and, although there is a big-drugs-bust plotline, the movie's main intention seems to be to make a homage to the style and clichés of certain 70s filmmaking (and the original TV show); car chases, for instance, focus on tongue-in-cheek action rather than adrenalin, and the cops' love of empty-headed curvaceous women combined with a homophobia towards each other and gay men is portrayed laughingly as an echo of the attitudes of the times rather than appealing to those sentiments. Not the sort of comedy I expected to enjoy so much personally, but I quickly warmed to this movie and found the feelgood factor continued unabated till the end.

Starsky and Hutch was pretty damn funny. Stiller and Wilson were exceptional in the two roles. Stiller played the "by the book", straight and narrow cop, Starsky, and Owen Wilson played the loose, largely irresponsible, and borderline criminal, Hutch.

I never saw the show to have as a reference which I think may have helped me enjoy the movie more. Vince Vaughn's character didn't do much for the movie, but Will Ferrel's character certainly did. In fact, the scene with Will Ferrel had to be one of, if not the funniest scene in the movie.

It seemed like a great tribute to the original to me.

What is with these losers complaining that this movie isn't a "true" remake of the original series? Starsky and Hutch isn't a sacred cinematic piece of art, it was a silly 70s cop show for crying out loud.

The only thing hurting this movie was the expectations. With Stiller, Wilson, Vaughn, and Ferrell you expect some sort of comedic nuclear bomb. Unfortunately with that many actors, some get underused. In this case it was Vaughn and Ferrell. Ferrell only had one humorous scene and Vaughn was almost completely wasted. When Vaughn started to make fun of the mimes (one line), I was waiting for him to keep going into his typical wiseass/a*****e humor that I so love....but he stopped. So the comedic focus is on Stiller and Wilson.

Think of the movie as along the same comic level as Zoolander. For 70s buffs, there are alot of references to that era, some are obvious while others are rather obscure (Wilson's song). This is a very good, but not great, movie.

So any time you mix a Will Ferrell, Ben Stiller, Todd Phillips, Wilson brother, and/or Vince Vaughn these days... you're pretty much guaranteed greatness (or at least a box office success). Will this train to gravy town ever end? Not with "Starsky" it won't... another winner. (This time with Juliette Lewis -- her first time? -- and Snoop Dogg -- also in "Old School" -- thrown in.) The film is full of great moments, from the dissertation on the sovereignty of Luxembourg to the return of the Dan Band (again, "Old School").

Chris Penn's appearance was sad... but if this was one of his last films, at least he left an impact in this world. Thanks, Chris, I love you.

I should also mention the soundtrack is spectacular - bringing back old hits that time has forgotten, much like "Dodgeball". All over, this film was very enjoyable and I'll probably end up watching it over and over again on those cold Wisconsin nights.

As for the plot, it's two cops in the 1970s working undercover and disco dancing, while making out with Carmen Electra and fighting Will Ferrell and Vince Vaughn in cheesy mustaches. If that's not your cup of tea, move on... but if it is, you'll probably love this film as much as some of the others (although this film is not as good as "Dodgeball" or "Anchorman", if that's what you think I'm getting at.)

Silly comedy. Silly jokes. Ok enough to watch it till the end, but nothing above average. Think of the usual Will Ferrel and Vince Vaugh kids humor and then you will know what to expect.

Cant imagine anyone being interested in the story because there basically is none. It's just a contineous silly parody on narcotic cops investigating drugdealers.