|
|
 |
The Other Guys: The Unrated Other Edition
[Blu-ray]
Blu-ray ALL - America - Sony Pictures Home Entertainment Review written by and copyright: Noor Razzak (7th March 2011). |
|
The Film
 Despite having starred in some box office bombs lately both Will Ferrell and Mark Wahlberg manage to bounce back in 2010. Previous to this film Ferrell was last seen in the big budget flop "Land of the Lost" (2009), the film was massive disappointment (although I personally thought it was one of the most underrated comedies of the year, it was a lot of fun and recommend people check it out). Wahlberg on the other hand had a much bigger box office hurdle to get past, his recent output was the under performing "Shooter" (2007), and horrible films such as "The Happening" (2008), "Max Payne" (2008), and being miscast in "The Lovely Bones" (2009). Walhberg hadn't had a hit since his Oscar nominated turn in "The Departed" (2006). It's perhaps luck and a little perseverance that Wahlberg bounced back starring in this action comedy farce as well as the highly lauded "The Fighter" (2010) and I was almost certain that Ferrell looked like he would soon be relegated to straight-to-video comedies in the near future as his "shtick" was getting tiresome. Retreating into the arms of his most trusted co-conspirator in Adam McKay the two re-teamed again (their fourth feature film collaboration) and found that spark he'd been missing in the last couple of years to deliver one of the funnier films of 2010. "The Other Guys" tells the story of Forensic accountant Allen Gamble (Will Ferrell) and his partner Detective Terry Hoitz (Mark Wahlberg), two incredibly mismatched cops, one's a lowly background cop who's content with being a wallflower while the other's a peacock that needs to fly and show his true colors as a hero. Allen and Terry are the other guys, while star making cops like P.K. Highsmith (Samuel L. Jackson) and Christopher Danson (Dwayne Johnson) are basking in all the action packed glory, bringing in high profile collars and banging hot chicks. They are the departments most impressive cops, cop that are seemingly bullet proof, just not concrete proof, when they die in a horrible accident brought on by themselves. Their premature departure has left a hole in their place for two cops to rise up and claim their spots and Terry sees an opportunity. Allen on the other hand is happy investigating city violations rather than chasing after dangerous criminals, but his hunch proves far bigger than originally expected as they unravel a case that puts millions of dollars at risk and sees corporate CEO David Ershon (Steve Coogan) suspected of fraud. For the most part "The Other Guys" works well and sustains it's comedic rifts throughout, occasionally losing steam here and there. The core to this action comedy is it's premise of buddy cop films, a genre that opens itself well to parody and can be endlessly farmed for funnies, the key however is whether the performers overstretch their resources, and frankly there are moments where I felt they could have shown some restraint with too many scenes going further than was necessary and thus the funniest moments being dragged out. A common flaw with most comedies is that it relies too heavily on the jokes to get audiences through, but the jokes need to be fresh each time, we get a lot of call backs in the final act and that really slows the film's comedic momentum down. In saying that there's plenty to laugh at, firstly are the two leads chemistry, the mismatched duo make a good coupling, Ferrell is the nerdy by-the-numbers one while Wahlberg seems to be angry most of the time, shouting his lines. After a while I grew tired of his shouting, and in many ways I kept thinking of the brilliant Andy Samberg "SNL" (1975-Present) sketch "Mark Wahlberg Talks To Animals". Wahlberg has his moments but is the primary weak link in this comedy, his timing is sometimes off and he doesn't seem to understand anything other than shouting his lines, thinking that might be funny. Ferrell in this case shows his improvisational skill as he manages to play off Wahlberg's performance peppering the film with some brilliantly funny scenes. The Lion vs. Tuna scene, driving to the crime scene in a Prius, the whisper fight at the funeral, all deliver in spades. There's some truly laugh out loud moments that stand out, and they're all based on scenes that may have been mostly improvised, it would be interesting to find out what was actually written and what was made up on the spot and while I enjoyed our leads in the film, there were plenty of supporting players that also added to the mix. Notably Michael Keaton is hysterically good as the Captain, with lines regarding his bi-sexual son and TLC references make him a stand out character instead of your usual hard-nosed Captain character we've seen a hundred times before. There are performances by comedian Rob Riggle and Damon Wayans Jr. that also hit the spot, convincing Ferrell's character to shoot his gun at his desk, "Hey, I did my first desk pop!" offered up one of the many memorable moments and quotes of the film. Framing the film around a plot ripped from headlines involving greedy corporate CEO's may seem topical, but towards the mid-point of the film and leading through it's final act it's evident the plot is secondary to the comedy and the situations the filmmakers have placed these characters in. In many ways the plot is an afterthought and that's primarily the case here in "The Other Guys" yet despite this I found myself really liking this film, first in theaters and how on Blu-ray I especially enjoyed it the second time around and found that a lot of the jokes still stick and had me laughing. It won't rank among the best comedies made but it's worth checking out. This disc includes both the film's original "Theatrical" cut and a slightly longer "Unrated" edition accessible through seamless branching.
Video
Presented in the film's original theatrical ratio of 2.40:1 in high definition 1080p 24/fps and mastered using AVC MPEG-4 compression. The image for this recent release is as expected quite solid, with accurate color reproduction, deep and rich black levels and natural skin tones. The image is crisp and clean showing no signs of defect. The HD image presented the colors and detail in a lush vivid quality, the close ups are nicely defined and backgrounds look good too. The textures hold up well throughout the presentation, a light layer of grain helps retain that filmic look, some DNR smoothing seems to have been applied on a couple of scenes making the overall image look a little waxy and soft but this is not really an issue. Overall it's a fine looking HD picture.
Audio
Sony has packed five audio tracks on this disc in English, French or Portuguese DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 surround in 48kHz/24-bit as well as a Spanish Dolby Digital 5.1 surround track and an English Audio Descriptive Dolby Digital 2.0 surround track. For the purposes of this review I chose to view the film with its English DTS-HD audio and it's fantastically impressive. This action comedy is splendidly mixed with rowdy action-packed audio, direction effects and booms that it'll keep you're system on its toes. The mix is well balanced between the quieter moments with clean and distortion free dialogue and subtle ambient sounds and the loud action scenes. The music comes across effectively and the overall audio experience is totally immersive. There are optional subtitles included in English, English with the hearing impaired, French, Spanish, Portuguese and Hindi.
Extras
Sony has released this disc with a decent collection of supplements including an audio commentary, nine featurettes, extended & deleted scenes, additional scenes, a promo, interviews, music video, a gag reel, bonus trailers, BD-Live access, an interactive feature and a digital copy on a second disc. While there are a lot of features packaged in this set, it's a shame they don't have that much substance. Below is a closer look at these supplements. DISC ONE: BLU-RAY First up is the feature-length audio commentary entitled "Mom"-Mentary" by Adam McKay, Christopher Henchy, and Will Ferrell's mothers. Were do I start with this track? I'm not sure I like it, while it's a nice idea, I don't think it really works in execution. I'd much prefer a proper filmmaker track with these talking shit about the production, instead we get their mothers... really? It was interesting for about twenty minutes then I got bored and started pressing the fast-forward button. There are some silent gaps, some laughing at scenes we already know are funny and some useless information handed out. Skip it. Next up is the "Line-O-Rama" (1080p) featurette that runs for 8 minutes 56 seconds, this is basically a b-roll clip of alternate lines and takes of some memorable scenes, there's some really funny improvised moments here, it would be interesting to see an editing featurette to see how they can select footage from what would be a vast amount of improvised scenes. "Flash Forwards" (1080p) are extended scenes that runs for 1 minute 45 seconds and feature some additional cameos as some scenes are further extended into a flash-forward-like future. It's kind of funny but not worth repeated viewing. "Alternate Action" (1080p) are a reel of additional scenes running for 2 minutes 42 seconds, these are more action packed scenes featuring hero cops Danson and Highsmith. following that is "Wasn't That???" (1080p), a featurette running for 15 minutes, this clip takes a closer look at the characters in the film, and features interviews with the director and the cast and this EPK clip is mostly self-congratulatory and gets tiresome after a couple of minutes. "Crash and Burn!" (1080p) is the next featurette running for 10 minutes 6 seconds, second unit director/stunt supervisor Brad Martin takes us behind-the-scenes of the stunt work in this film as we look at some key scenes and how they were achieved. "Why Are There Brits in This Movie?" (1080p) is a featurette runs for 6 minutes 41 seconds, is a look at the British cast in the film, primary comedian Steve Coogan, there's some funny stuff in here but again it's pretty much skippable. "Rob Riggle Likes to Party" (1080p) is the next featurette and runs for 2 minutes 32 seconds, is an amusing look at comedian Riggle on set having a good time. "We Shouldn't Kiss Chicken" (1080p) featurette follows and runs for 1 minute 16 seconds, basically a video version of the game "gay chicken" where the first person to pull away loses... again this is only partly amusing... thankfully it's short. "Mark Wahlberg's Eating Contest Entourage" (1080p) is a featurette that runs for 3 minutes 33 seconds. Wahlberg hangs out with a friend from his old neighborhood who also happens to be an extreme eating champion, and lucky us! We get to watch him eat... ugh. "Bed Bath and Way Beyond" (1080p) is a featurette that runs for 4 minutes 6 seconds. Takes a look at Keaton on set and also having a ball in characters as the Police Captain. It's a neat clip but has some repeated content seen in other clips. "Lendl Global Commercial" (1080p) is a fake promo running for 39 seconds and is a commercial created for the fiction company seen in the film. "Extreme Close-Up" (1080p) are interviews running for 5 minutes 17 seconds, a funny interview clip that features a zoomed in subject. "Pimps Don't Cry" by Cee-Lo Green featuring Eva Mendes (1080p) is a music video running for 3 minutes 50 seconds, is a fairly generic video. "Everyone Hates the DVD Guy" (1080p) featurette runs for 4 minutes 47 seconds, I actually really dug this clip that takes a look at the guy who's in charge of shooting footage for the DVD release (or i this case the Blu-ray). There are a collection of extended & deleted scenes (1080p) running for a total of 30 minutes 24 seconds, they can be viewed either individually or with a 'play all' option, the scenes included are: - "Important Delivery" Terry and Allen pick up lunch for the crew. - "Post Explosion" Danson thinks Highsmith is killed in an explosion. - "Allen Gamble Action Montage" a montage of Allen working in the office. - "Alternate Insult Response" another version of Terry insulting Allen about being a lion that would eat Allen in the wild. - "RIP Danson and Highsmith" an extended version of the funeral. - "Escape Attempt" Allen attempts to escape Terry from gun point. - "Free Treats" street thugs try to collect cocaine from off of Allen's car. - "Martin and Fosse Meet Their Heroes" The two tell a story about meeting - "Yoga" Pamela Boardman (Anne Heche talks on her cell phone during a yoga class. - "The Full Trip" Terry and Allen are stuck in their car as it's being loaded onto a flat bed and being shipped off. - "Sketch Artist" Allen and Terry describe a perp to a sketch artist. - "Fountain" David Ershon meets Pamela at the Central Park fountain and tells her that he might be funding the Taliban. - "Handing Over Evidence" an extended version of the scene where Allen and Terry hand over evidence to Ershon's lawyer. - "Who Is Terry Hoitz?" Allen is tired of Terry being angry all the time in another extended scene. - "Farewell Francine" Terry says goodbye to his ex-girlfriend and embarrasses himself in front of her father. - "Let There Be Love" Terry and his ex-girlfriend on a date. - "Quiet Before the Storm" Roger Wesley (Ray Stevenson) calls Erchon's apartment and offers a threat. - "Alternate Ending" another ending of Terry and Allen at cop counseling. There's a fairly generic gag reel (1080p) that runs for 6 minutes 17 seconds, and it does over-stretch at times but there's some gold comedy in here as well. The disc also features some bonus trailers (1080p) for: - "Sony 3D" spot runs for 55 seconds. - "The Social Network" runs for 2 minutes 28 seconds. - "Salt" runs for 2 minutes 2 seconds. - "Easy A" runs for 2 minutes 37 seconds. There's also BD-Live access for profile 2.0 only players and the "MovieIQ" interactive feature as well. DISC TWO: This disc is a DVD copy plus a digital copy version of the film.
Overall
Support us by purchasing this disc online at Bluraysforeveryone.com, they specialize in store exclusives and limited editions both new and used, plus have a wide range of new releases and catalogue titles. Join their reward program and earn points towards your purchases. Best of all for overseas customers they are customs friendly and offer great cost-saving shipping options. Check them out for some cool limited editions. 
|
|||||
|