Paige and I saw Starsk & Huch yesterday at the matinee. We were in the mood for something light, and so it was either 50 First Dates or S&H. I love Adam Sandler movies when they're really good, but I hate them with a passion when they're bad. I just think he goes for the cheap gags too often to satisfying his 13-year-old target audience. There's only so many jokes that involving some variation of farting on an old lady that I can take before I get bored. So I twisted her arm and we saw S&H, instead, even though she and I share a deep affection for Drew Barrymore's romantic comedies.
The movie is not a great movie by any means. But it has enough great scenes and great bits that made it worth our time. The script is a bit clunky at places, and Snoop Dogg never seemed completely comfortable as an actor. On the whole, it seemed like the writer and the director used the shotgun approach to comedy - the variance in the range of the jokes released was wide so that some jokes didn't hit at all, while others were priceless. And on average, even though a lot of it was stupid, slightly more was fun, and I had a good time. I figure that's all you can really ask from a movie like this.
Some of my favorite parts involved Wil Farrell. Farrell is a great ensemble comedic actor. He plays well off of other actors in the scene with him, usually underplays his characte and never feels the need to steal the scene. I contrast him with someone like Robin Williams or Jim Carrey, whose comedic presence usually ends up dominating whatever scene they're in. Farrell played a prisoner named "Big Earl" who has a penchant for sewing dragons on clothing. A dead man who washed ashore had one of these dragons embroidered on his denim jacket, so the cop duo went to speak with him in jail. From there, things get a little weird. But he will exchange information only on the condition that Owen Wilson perform for him. He tells Ben Still to tell Owen Wilson to go across the room, arch his back, and look over his shoulder at Farrell "mean, like a dragon!" That interaction between Farrell and them is worth the price of admission alone.
There are other funny parts, too, but they're not classic by any means. The movie was mostly a nice viewing experience because of the friendship between Starsky and Hutch. Owen Wilson plays his typical affectionate, sincere self - a part that I never tire seeing him in. Ben Stiller plays someone who seems incredily tense - like he's been waiting for twenty minutes for someone to get out of the bathroom so he can go. And over the course of the movie, they come to appreciate one another and love one another, and ultimately become partners - professinoaly, but mostly personally. That was what was mostly nice about the movie for me. It did have a bunch of funny parts, but I appreciated that the director did not try to force Wilson and Stiller to focus only on exagerrating the qualities of their characters (which I felt like almost happened, especially with Stiller, who seemed to overplay his character's anal-retentive style). Instead, he allows them to become friends, and so even though there was a lot of hit and miss with the jokes, and even though the plot was slim, and even though I felt like someone else should've been cast as Huggy Bear, it gave the movie a good feeling in the end.
Posted by scott at March 6, 2004 09:14 AM | TrackBack