"The Other Guys" - in theaters

I always love a good Will Ferrell movie. Even if the plot is total crap, I'm usually guaranteed a few good laughs along the way.

I was pleasantly surprised watching this movie, as not only was it pretty good, and pretty funny, it wasn't your typical Will Ferrell vehicle. He was very reserved throughout most of the film, which I found refreshing.

The story centers around two cops, Allen (Ferrell) and Terry (Mark Wahlberg), who aren't given too much responsibility around the police station. While Allen is content to sit at his desk and do paperwork, Terry is itching to get back into some tough police work. The thing is, Terry is a hated man in New York City (where the movie takes place) because he shot Derek Jeeter in the leg during game 7 of the World Series, causing the Yankees the championship. He can't seem to live it down, no matter how hard he works.

Things turn around for the two of them when another pair of hotshot detectives die in the line of duty. Terry sees this as an opportunity to step up, and basically drags Allen along for the ride. Through a series of mishaps, they get involved in something much bigger than what they were expecting, and of course, chaos and laughter ensues.

The pair are bumbling and stumbling through their big "case", and you can see that Wahlberg is having a lot of fun playing this character, given that's it pretty different than anything else he's done. Eva Mendes plays Ferrell's "plain Jane" wife, and she has some pretty hysterical moments. I hope that in the future she does more comedy because she really has the chops for it.

Steve Coogan plays the sort-of villain, a Bernie Madoff type character looking to pay back some clients with other people's money. He wasn't used to his best effect, but he did portray a slimeball pretty convincingly.

I also found that Allen's Toyota Prius was a character in and of itself in this film. It represented what Allen was made of, and it was used very intelligently.

So on the CWeave scale, I rate this movie an 8. Adam McKay (the director) could've used Coogan better, but the chemistry between Wahlberg and Ferrell is pretty fantastic. Not to mention that any time you get Mark Wahlberg to dance, you get bonus points in my book.