In a world awash in ideological mayhem, there’s something to be said for the continued existence of the lowbrow comedy. While other movies take themselves too seriously and strive to dictate this season’s set of pop-culture rules, the lowbrow comedy entertains and speaks a refreshing language all too foreign in the air of contemporary cinema: the unpretentious truth.
Starsky and Hutch won’t win the award for Best Picture at the Oscars next year. Director Todd Philips, responsible for two other modern classics, Road Trip and Old School, will not receive a golden statue honouring his work. The stars: Ben Stiller, Owen Wilson, Vince Vaughn and Snoop Dogg will all (tragically) leave the building empty-handed. No matter how great Starsky and Hutch stands to be, Hollywood awards like the Oscars are quite simply not equipped to recognize this type of cinematic greatness. In this sense, the modern comedy has become a modern tragedy at the same time.
This cloud, however, is not without its silver lining: go and see Starsky and Hutch, and you will laugh. It barely even matters that the flick is delivered as a nostalgic prequel to the awesome ’70s cop action series-the movie is hilarious on its own accord.
Recent history proves that Ben Stiller and Owen Wilson are funny whenever they share the screen. The duo, who have worked together on such comic masterpieces as The Royal Tenenbaums, Zoolander, and Meet the Parents plant their feet firmly on the soil of fictional Bay City, circa 1975 to tell the story of how Starsky met Hutch.
The film finds Detective David Starsky (Stiller), an anal-retentive, obsessively keen, workaholic undercover cop partnered up with Ken Hutchinson (Wilson), whose playboy-style conduct constantly blurs the line between careless and illegal. Meanwhile, across town, a major coke deal is in the works. The arrogant, yacht-owning criminal mastermind Reese Feldman (Vince Vaughn) has invented a new form of cocaine which is odorless to drug-sniffing dogs, and passes in drug labs as artificial sweetener. In only a few short days, Feldman plans to execute the largest drug deal in Bay City history.
Luckily for Starsky, his new, laid-back partner has some well-positioned associates. Hutch’s old friend and informal informant (“I lay it out, for you to play it out”) Huggy Bear (Snoop Dogg), is a pimped-out, high-rolling hustler with an eye for style and one ear to the ground. Huggy tips the pair off with information regarding the impending coke extravaganza, and the stage is set for some wicked jokes.
As can be seen in the interrogation scene (possibly the funniest in the movie), Stiller and Wilson have a unique chemistry where two very different acting styles seem to intersect. Stiller, like Starsky on the beat, is vigorous and methodical in his acting, creating a real character far more neurotic and awkward than his normal personality.
“I got together with Paul Michael Glaser (the original Starsky) before we started shooting and talked to him, and then I just watched as many of the episodes as I could, constantly, while we were shooting,” says Stiller on the phone from his apartment in Los Angeles. “Really, that’s what the basis of the show’s success was, just their chemistry and how cool they were.”
In contrast, the easy-going character of Hutch is just Owen Wilson wearing David Soul’s clothes and carrying a badge and a gun, which is hilarious nonetheless. “The fact that Ben and I have worked together a lot, and that we’re friends in real life, hopefully we kind of have our own rapport that will help the movie,” says Wilson, also on the line from L.A.
The action/cop genre, which the original Starsky and Hutch worked to define, is a landscape rife with insane, life-threatening stunts, mostly involving Starsky’s trademark red and white Ford Gran Torino. In that sense the new film is no different. Asked about the stunt driving in the film, Stiller admits, “Most of the driving was done by stunt drivers, but I did take driving classes. I got to do a couple of peel-outs and power slides. Owen was not that comfortable with me driving, though.”
To which Wilson dryly counters, “The most dangerous stunt that I did was riding in the car with Ben.”
Principal duo Stiller and Wilson aside, the greatness of Starsky and Hutch is taken to new heights by the strength of the supporting cast. Vince Vaughn, who should never again play another serious role in his life, is absolutely hilarious as the drug lord who is planning his daughter’s bat mitzvah with the same chutzpah as his multi-million dollar coke deal.
In addition to Vaughn, Snoop Dogg in the role of Huggy Bear may be one of the best casting choices in recent history. Apparently, just after the Starsky and Hutch project was first announced, East Coast “rapper” Sean “P. Diddy” Combs publicly expressed an interest in the part. But as Snoop explains over the phone from his home in California, “his chances were slim to none.” According to Snoop, director Todd Phillips had him in mind the whole time, and after a quick audition for formality’s sake, the part was his, and P. Diddy was left high and dry.
In Starsky and Hutch Snoop Dogg does a service to all other rappers looking to cross the line into film. His portrayal is both empowering (how many films out right now have a black hustler as the hero?) and funny as Huggy tries to balance his committed friendship to Hutch with his understandable disdain for the decidedly uncool Starsky.
So this month, as we emerge from the armpit of the year (blustery February and the always-tedious Oscars), do yourself a favour and check out what could very well be the funniest movie of the year.
