With Meet the Parents, Zoolander and The Royal Tenenbaums, Ben Stiller and Owen Wilson proved to be a natural comedic duo. Wilson's laid back, dry performance perfectly complimented Stiller's manic, neurotic yet equally clueless characters.
Starsky and Hutch is, happily, another extension of this successful comedic pairing, and works around the strengths of each to provide an entirely watchable - not to mention hilarious - movie.
Todd Phillips is at the helm here - the man behind the Ivan Reitman-produced "Road Trip" and "Old School." Don't let this turn you off, however - especially if you're not a fan of the frat-boy humour of these films. "Starsky and Hutch" manages to both revere its '70s TV namesake, while simultaneously lampooning the inherently cheesy subject matter.
The most suprising feat is how capable a director Phillips truly is. He manages to capture the filmmaking style of '70s cop-shows, replete with freeze-frames, quick zoom-ins and funk-inspired soundtrack. There's car chases over bumpy San-Francisco streets, macho posturing and babes with feathered hair. The attention to detail is incredible. And did I mention it was funny too?
"Starsky and Hutch" manages to work on two levels. One, it's a gag-a-minute comedy that essentially strings together a set of gags, reminiscent of a Saturday Night Live skit, or -at worst - a Zucker-Abrahams movie. On another level, it's an episode of a '70s cop-show, the only difference being the bad acting is purely intentional.
Inspired bits of casting, aside from the leads, include coke-selling yuppie villains played by Vince Vaughan and (!) Jason Bateman, a biker with a dragon-fetish played by Will Farrell, and Snoop Dogg as Huggy Bear.
See it. It's funny, and it's suprisingly well-made.
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