Check out what critics have to say before you head out to the theater this weekend. By Eric Ditzian and Jeremy Kaplan Will Ferrell, Steve Coogan and Mark Wahlberg in “The Other Guys” Photo: Sony Pictures Leonardo DiCaprio’s fevered dreams have dominated the multiplex for three straight weeks. Now it looks like the “Inception” supremacy is coming to an end, with Leo’s reveries soon to be overtaken by Will Ferrell’s wackiness. The curly-haired comedian stars in “The Other Guys,” an action-comedy that marks his fourth big screen collaboration with writer/director Adam McKay, following “Anchorman,” “Talladega Nights” and “Step Brothers.” Co-starring Mark Wahlberg as Ferrell’s reluctant NYPD partner and fellow desk-jockey, “Other Guys” could easily outdo the $30 million “Step Brothers” took in back in 2008. Helping in that quest are the flick’s strong critical reviews. Before you head to the cinema this weekend, check out what the critics have to say. The Story “This latest gambit stars Ferrell as Det. Allen Gamble, a NYPD forensic accountant, and Mark Wahlberg as his rogue cop partner, a reluctant and raging Terry Hoitz. These flat-footed flatfoots get lots of razzing from the other boys in blue, but in typical don’t-count-Ferrell’s-underachievers-out fashion, they just might derail a $32-billion stock market rip-off if they can follow the paper trail and stop bickering long enough to figure it out.” — Betsy Sharkey, Los Angeles Times The Cast “Mr. Ferrell’s Allen is a genuinely sweet guy as well as a crazed one: As evidence, his time-out for a surreal folk ballad, along with his mad reminiscence about being a pimp in college. (Jon Brion did the music, which includes the lullaby ‘Pimps Don’t Cry.’) Mr. Wahlberg provides counterpoint to his co-star’s nuances by declaiming his lines at the top of his voice: here again, the results can be hilarious when they aren’t silly. Michael Keaton is a police captain who moonlights at Bed Bath & Beyond. Steve Coogan, a reliably funny actor, isn’t funny as a bad guy scheming to defraud the city. He seems to think he’s in a drama.” — Joe Morgenstern, The Wall Street Journal The Jokes ” ‘The Other Guys’ gets you chuckling at the little details of Allen’s stick-up-the-butt patheticness, like the way he hums while typing, or argues with Terry about how a school of tuna could whip a lion, or blasts Little River Band CDs in his sad, dinky red Prius. (Terry: ‘I feel like we’re literally driving around in a vagina.’) A few of the jokes are sly, many are quite obvious, but what knits the laughs together is the nearly confessional conviction with which Ferrell delivers them. He’s not playing just another geek idiot — as, say, Rob Schneider does. He digs into some elemental side of himself, a side that craves order and niceness and civility, that shrinks from danger and violence.” — Owen Gleiberman, Entertainment Weekly The Buddy Cop Genre “Adam McKay and co-writer Chris Henchy (‘Land of the Lost’) have overloaded the narrative, stretching it 20 minutes beyond its practical use and mistaking bigger and more explosive with funnier. From ‘Freebie and the Bean’ to ‘Running Scared’ to the ‘Lethal Weapon’ franchise, the challenge with cop-centric action comedies has remained essentially the same: How to balance straightforward adrenaline-rush material with bits you’d never find in a real cop film? This one begins buckling under its own weight around the midpoint; on the other hand, I’m already looking forward to catching certain asides and riffs again on cable.” — Michael Phillips, Chicago Tribune The Final Word ” ‘The Other Guys’ is that rare thing, a goofball summer buddy comedy that actually delivers. The movie is a return to form for Will Ferrell, who finally reins in the idiot frenzy he’s so often deployed in the past (most recently in last year’s dismal ‘Land of the Lost’) and — an added blessing — shows no skin, either. It’s also a breakthrough for Mark Wahlberg, who dipped a toe into the comedy waters of ‘Date Night,’ but here makes a sizeable splash. Wahlberg isn’t an all-out clown in the Ferrell style, but his careful restraint in this picture — his comic simmering and his lag-timed reactions — is just as funny in a different way.’ — Kurt Loder, MTV News Check out everything we’ve got on “The Other Guys.” For breaking news, celebrity columns, humor and more — updated around the clock — visit MTVMoviesBlog.com . Related Videos ‘The Other Guys’ Clips MTV Rough Cut: ‘The Other Guys’
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