a review by J. Robert Parks
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Director – Todd Phillips
Writer – John O’Brien, Todd Phillips and Scot Armstrong, based on a story by Stevie Long and John O’Brien and characters created by William Blinn
Director of photography – Barry Peterson
Editor – Leslie Jones
Music by Theodore Shapiro
Production designer – Edward Verreaux
Producers – William Blinn, Stuart Cornfeld, Akiva Goldsman, Tony Ludwig and Alan Riche
Warner Brothers Pictures and Dimension Films. 97 minutes. Rated PG-13.
STARRING: Ben Stiller (David Starsky), Owen Wilson (Ken Hutchinson), Vince Vaughn (Reese Feldman), Fred Williamson (Captain Doby), Snoop Dogg (Huggy Bear) and Juliette Lewis (Kitty).
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Casting a movie is never easy. You have to find the right actors for the right parts, you have to hope your leads will generate the proper chemistry, and you have to balance schedules and salary demands. Sometimes everything falls into place (think John Travolta and Samuel L. Jackson in Pulp Fiction) and sometimes it doesn’t (think Jennifer Lopez and Matthew McConaughey in The Wedding Planner). And sometimes there’s Starsky and Hutch, which if you’re going to make an updated, ironic version for the new century, has to star Ben Stiller and Owen Wilson.
For those of you too young to remember bland tv shows from the ’70s, Starsky and Hutch was a cop drama starring Paul Michael Glaser and David Soul. They offered a ’70s, big-mustache-kind-of-sexy spin on the good cop, bad cop routine. To be honest, that’s all I remember about the show, which makes it a perfect vehicle for a Hollywood adaptation. Since only the most diehard TV Land viewer will have any fond memories of the original, director and writer Todd Phillips (Old School)–along with co-writers John O’Brien, Scot Armstrong, and Stevie Long–can write pretty much whatever they want, while using the original’s ’70s setting for a litany of ironic references.
These references include various songs (“Send in the clowns”), settings (disco dance-offs), and situations (reading Free to Be You and Me). I’ve never been a huge fan of this style of comedy. Popularized by The Simpsons, it’s the most unimaginative kind of joke, relying on the audience’s willingness to laugh at something merely because they recognize it. Ha ha, there’s the original Starsky and Hutch. Ha ha, I haven’t heard a Barry Manilow song in ages. And Phillips misses the mark when he starts making jokes about new and old coke, which was a mid-’80s phenomenon.
Fortunately, the movie Starsky and Hutch doesn’t feature only that kind of humor. Stiller and Wilson are too smart for that. As you might imagine, Stiller is Starsky, the straight guy to Wilson’s Ken Hutchinson. Stiller has played this role before, especially in silly comedies like There’s Something About Mary and Mystery Men. He has a nice way with a reaction shot, and his stone-faced delivery creates some priceless moments. Owen Wilson plays basically the same character he did in The Big Bounce and Shanghai Noon: the laid-back, perpetually bemused slacker sliding through life. We first see Hutchinson as he’s preparing to rob a bookie. His opening line–”I’ve always had this theory about police work: if you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em”–is priceless.
Hutchinson soon settles down to normal police business, though, as he’s paired up with Starsky. The oil-and-water pair don’t mix well at first, but they find a useful balance as they try to solve a murder. The murderer in the case is played by Vince Vaughn, who’s made a living off portraying slightly slimy characters who think they’re smarter than they are. He’s a fantastic choice for the role of cocaine dealer Reese Feldman, and his interactions with Stiller and Wilson form the best parts of the film. A scene at the bat mitzvah of Feldman’s daughter is filled with wonderful moments of chaos.
The supporting cast in Starsky and Hutch isn’t quite as good. Though Will Ferrell is a talented comedian, here his homosexual biker dude is too outrageous to be funny. Snoop Dogg would be a perfect Huggy Bear (the friendly neighborhood pimp) except that his comic timing is always a second off. And Juliette Lewis just keeps getting type-cast as the wild-and-crazy white trash.
Nonetheless, the show really belongs to Stiller and Wilson. Though the gags aren’t always funny, I usually had a smile on my face. Their camaraderie rings true, and their riffs on police-show cliches are fantastic. I especially enjoyed how they parody the overused theme of the parent who was also a cop and died in the line of duty. That hoary gimmick needs to be ripped out of every screenwriting textbook. Stiller and Wilson can stick around a while longer.