Starsky & Hutch Review
by Bob Bloom (bob AT bloomink DOT com)March 5th, 2004
STARSKY & HUTCH (2004) 2 1/2 stars out of 4. Starring Ben Stiller, Owen Wilson,
Vince Vaughn, Juliette Lewis, Snoop Dogg, Justin Bateman, Fred Williamson, Amy
Smart, Carmen Electra, George Kee Cheung and Chris Penn. Based on characters created by William Blinn. Story by Stevie Long and John O'Brien. Screenplay by
John O'Brien and Todd Phillips & Scot Anderson. Directed by Todd Phillips. Rated PG-13. Running time: Approx. 100 mins.
If Starsky & Hutch was a food product, it would be a precooked frozen dinner.
Meaning it contains just enough nutrients to sustain you, but is neither long lasting nor memorable.
Smartly, director Todd Phillips and his army of writers take a light-hearted,
comedic approach to their feature and reinforce the concept by casting Ben Stiller as David Starsky and Owen Wilson as Ken Hutchinson.
Stiller and Wilson, having already collaborated five times, including Meet the
Parents, The Royal Tenenbaums and Zoolander, fit comfortably into their personas. They perform their routines by rote.
Stiller's Starsky is the compulsive, nagging, anal, by-the-book cop, while Wilson's Hutch is the cool, calm, laid-back individual, unfazed in most crises.
The movie should be called "When David Met Kenny," because the film covers the
origins of this unique partnership, which spawned the famed 1970s TV show.
The Stiller-Wilson chemistry fuels the film along with a gentle spoofing of the era of big hair and disco.
In their initial assignment, Starsky and Hutch investigate a floater, a body that has washed ashore. It leads them to businessman Reese Feldman (Vince Vaughn), who is planning to distribute a large shipment of cocaine to various dealers throughout Bay City.
The undercover cops, who are neither very undercover nor very inconspicuous, screech around the city in Starsky's beloved Ford Gran Torino to get to the bottom of the mystery.
Along the way, they spoof such films as Easy Rider and Saturday Night Fever, before meting out justice to the bad guys, with the help of their ultra-cool street informant, Huggy Bear (Snoop Dogg).
Starsky & Hutch is guilty pleasure fun that just rolls along having a grand old time. And when Wilson's Hutch begins singing, "Don't Give Up on Us," the song popularized by the original Hutch, David Soul, the film became somewhat surreal.
The movie makes no pretensions toward art. It's like easy-listening music — inoffensive, pleasurable and quickly forgettable.
Bob Bloom is the film critic at the Journal and Courier in Lafayette, Ind. He
can be reached by e-mail at [email protected] or at [email protected]. Bloom's reviews also can be found at the Journal and Courier
Web site: www.jconline.com
Other reviews by Bloom can be found at the Rottentomatoes Web site: www.rottentomatoes.com or at the Internet Movie Database Web site:
www.imdb.com/M/reviews_by?Bob+Bloom
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