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Starsky & Hutch (2003)Rated PG-13 for drug content, sexual situations, partial nudity, language and some violence.Starring Ben Stiller, Owen Wilson, Vince Vaughn, Juliette Lewis, Snoop Dogg. LVJeff's Rating: 7/10
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 Photo ©Warner Bros. and Dimension Films. All rights reserved. |
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Comedy Duo Comeback Ben Stiller and Owen Wilson are on to something. The art of the two-man comedy team doesn't see much light these days; the times favor the one-man shows instead. I think Jim Carrey got that one going, and then perhaps Adam Sandler ran with the ball. Just last year, two comedies, School of Rock and Elf, got a lot of laughs and their successes were attributed to their singular stars, Jack Black and Will Ferrell, respectively. But dedicated two-man teams -- ones with a real dynamic, like the classic pairings of Laurel and Hardy or Abbott and Costello -- have meanwhile been sacrificed. The closest thing I see to being a revival of the two-man comedy team is the pairing of Stiller and Wilson. They showed us a glimpse of that in Zoolander, which was promoted as a Stiller one-man movie but thrived in the moments when he and Wilson shared the screen. Now, the next step has arrived -- a true "buddy comedy" featuring a seasoned partnership where each member complements the other in splendid fashion: Starsky and Hutch. Never mind the source material for this project. Yes, it's based off the '70's television show, and, yes, it's done in parodic style, like The Brady Bunch and Charlie's Angels, but these facts become insignificant in the shadow of Stiller and Wilson's honed act. They could've been playing anybody and the setting could've been in the '90's, and the movie probably wouldn't have been much different. Stiller gives his Starsky the personality of a tightly-wound neurotic channelling his Mr. Furious from Mystery Men, while Wilson makes Hutch act like, well, Owen Wilson. These two personae have been separately made familiar to us over the last few years, but putting them together is like finding out how good chocolate goes with peanut butter. A good thing, too -- their pairing obscures the observation that the movie they occupy is a Frankenstein's monster, a comedy mishmash without focus or identity. It may be lampooning the '70's, but it doesn't go very far with it, with most of the references restricted to fashions and hairdos. It could be a satire of the cop shows of those days -- it employs a standard plot that leads our heroes to their quarry with a chain of clues, but employing it is about all they do with it. For a while, it looked as if it had something to say about the narrow-minded perceptions of the day -- when Starsky touches Hutch's hair (or was it the other way around?), their captain wigs out in homophobic queasiness -- but then it relies on the audience's possession of that same macho sexual insecurity to draw big laughs in a later scene. As a movie, the whole thing is really loosely glued together. What it does best is showcase the comedic talents of its cast. Vince Vaughn as the villain shows just how comfortable he is whenever he plays an abrasive slickster who thinks too much of himself. Even Snoop Dogg gets off a few good lines as the way-too-laid-back Huggy Bear. Meanwhile, Stiller and Wilson do their thing with Ben flipping out and Owen slacking off. It's an old formula, really -- put one neurotic together with one gentle softy, and the humor flies. There's a conspicuous difference here, though -- usually, the neurotic is the straight man and the softy gets the laughs by being dopey or clueless, but with these two it's the other way around. It's doubly potent -- Stiller and Wilson bring back the lost but still effective art of the two-man team while giving it a slanted spin. They have a good start; now all they need to do is keep elevating the material and we could have a duo for the ages. ©Jeffrey Chen, Mar. 1, 2004 |
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