Starsky & Hutch

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.)

Of all the recent buddy-cop movies, released lately this is one of the better ones.

Biggest strength of this movie is in the two main characters played by Ben Stiller and Owen Wilson. They are such a great screen duo together and have some great team chemistry on the screen. The movie is filled with many other great comical talented actors such as; Vince Vaughn as the main villain, Snoop Dogg and Will Ferrell and some smaller roles for famous names such as; Chris Penn, Carmen Electra, Amy Smart and Juliette Lewis.

But the movie is more then just an ordinary buddy-movie, it also is a priceless parody of '70's TV-shows in general. It uses some of the same camera-positions and style of editing at times, especially in the action sequences. But also the way of acting, dialog and costumes perfectly spoof all those silly '70 TV-series. I'm not sure if everybody catch or understood this but I really laughed out loud at some moments.

The comedy can be put in the category silly, so this movie is clearly not suitable for everyone. The humor is really over-the-top but I for one really enjoyed that. The characters are really silly but the professional comedy actors portray them extremely well and likable.

A perfectly fun comedy to kill some time with.

7/10

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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.

A funny and thoroughly enjoyable spin on the overused cop-buddy formula, "Starsky and Hutch" is one of the most entertaining films of 2004 -- even if it's nothing more than just that.

With a fair share of laugh-out-loud moments, and more than a handful of in-joke references to '70s pop culture (including the original source material: "Starsky and Hutch" the TV show), it also boasts a fine comedic cast with talented performers: Ben Stiller, Owen Wilson, Vince Vaughn, Snoop Dogg, Chris Penn, Amy Smart and some uncredited cameos by the likes of Will Ferrell -- and yes, even the original Starsky and Hutch. But their shared appearance is one best left open. ("I get a good vibe from these guys," the younger Hutch exclaims in one of the film's most savory self-referential moments.)

The film takes place in Bay City, "sometime during the '70s," when David Starsky (Stiller) -- a by-the-numbers police officer who spends his entire day chasing small-time crooks -- is paired up with a new partner, the reckless Ken "Hutch" Hutchinson (Wilson). Starsky and Hutch don't get along at first -- their mixed personalities collide, resulting in uncomfortable tension. Placed on an assignment involving an alleged drug lord (Vaughn), who has managed to create undetectable cocaine, Starsky and Hutch find themselves in a number of awkward situations: getting a statement by Big Earl (Ferrell), a dragon-obsessed inmate with some major issues; the usual tidbits of information from Huggy Bear (Dogg), a friend and informant of Hutch's; and of course the mandatory romantic subplot involving a pair of sexy cheerleaders.

The contrast of Starsky and Hutch is handled deliberately blunt: this comedy isn't as much a victim of the cop-buddy genre as it is a dead-on spoof. Hutch is a self-described "realist" -- during his introductory sequence he is shown fleeing the scene of a robbery with a stash of money. We assume he is undercover, and that's what he tells the cops when they try to arrest him. However, he's just using his badge as an excuse to commit crimes -- and get away with them.

I asked myself if it was as possible as the film implies, but then the Constantly Yelling and/or Upset Police Captain (another clichéd role that happens to show up in all these movies) tells Hutch that it's the seventh time he's been arrested for robbery, and Hutch tells him that he's undercover -- trying to work his way in through the criminal underground. The joke, of course, is that we find out the robberies are all totally unrelated and bear no significant to a criminal underground of any kind.

There are a few sequences in the movie that deserve a description of their own, such as when Starsky accidentally consumes a large amount of cocaine and works himself into an ultimate-high-frenzy, battling on the disco floor of a nightclub for short-lived glory. After his opponent is unjustly awarded the gold medal, Starsky pulls out his gun and from there on the entire situation escalates into one of those scenes that -- like parts of Stiller's "There's Something About Mary" -- last on in viewers' minds even after the film itself fades away. The sort of sequence you might chuckle about to yourself as you drive home and recall certain moments from the film.

Stiller and Wilson -- presently two of Hollywood's most famous odd couples who have united together for a number of projects over the years -- are always likable in their films and nothing changes here. Wilson uses his sarcastic quips to an advantage, coming across as the smoother of the two, whereas Starsky is the bumbling and self-conscious idiot who is both over-protective and over-zealous.

The movie is at its best when it is cleverly satirizing the genre. Most of these films always include a sequence where the police captain will suspend the movie's protagonist and frown on him, saying something cheesy like, "Your father, who spent years on the force and was one of the highest-decorated officers, would be ashamed of you!" Instead, the police captain tells Starsky that his mother would be ashamed of him. And then after being suspended, Starsky takes a visit to his mother's grave and places a glazed donut on the headstone (she was the highly decorated cop in the family, apparently).

The film was directed by Todd Phillips, whose resume includes such raunchy efforts at comedy as the crude-but-enjoyable "Road Trip" and surprising "Old School." The latter film starred Ferrell and Vaughn and contained a cameo appearance by Snoop Dogg (as himself), so obviously these guys enjoyed working with Phillips and, I'm sure, agreed to contribute to this movie just for the heck of it.

The result is a very goofy, entertaining summer flick that never tries too hard and invariably never falls too hard, either. It does fall sometimes, but even then it usually takes its screw-ups with a pinch of salt. This is the sort of movie worth the price of admission -- just to sit back, forget your worries, and watch a couple of clowns bumble their way through an enjoyable farce of the '70s. It's not the kind of movie you'll be talking about after you see it -- just a simple popcorn flick. If you're out and about and you happen to stumble into a theater showing this film, you'll find your money well spent. I won't praise "Starsky and Hutch" for being a brilliant tongue-in-cheek spoof of the cop-buddy films -- I'll merely say that, for what it is, "Starsky and Hutch" is well-made and funny -- a surprisingly simple movie that is everything it pretends to be. The majority of films that use this approach suffer because they fall victim to their targets, especially most released this year, but where the others have failed "Starsky and Hutch" succeeds.