Gripping story with well-crafted characters

Better Late Then Never

A bit overrated, but still an amazing film

If you like to be scared, if you like to laugh, and if you like to learn a thing or two at the movies, this absolutely cannot be missed.

Starsky and Hutch is a great remake of an older television show. This is a frat pack movie and most of them are here. Owen Wilson and Ben Stiller play the titular character and although not over the top funny they are a good mixture of drama and goofy fun. The cameo from Will Ferrell is a highlight and Vince Vaughn is great as the bad guy. This was made at the height of the team's output. This is a great Sunday evening movie.

Although I was just a kid in the Seventies, I remember Starsky and Hutch. The first fifteen minutes of the movie were outstanding in that the audience really feels that it is the 1970s. There is the romanticism and coolness of the 70s, but there are also real problems going on. Too many nostalgia movies just turn some era into a stereotype and fantasia. In the very beginning, Vince Vaughn plays an extremely psychopathic drug dealer who has no problem killing someone and then going back to getting a massage. The job of being a cop is seen as pretty rough. The 70s was an exciting time, but it was also a time of stressful change. The beginning of the movie is excellent in making one believe that it is actually 1975. There are some hilarious and funny moments in the movie. Stiller plays a really uptight person, tightly wound and a rules freak. I think Starsky was supposed to be college educated. Hutch is less developed, and more like Owen Wilson. Still, Wilson and Stiller are very funny together, as they usually are. The funniest scene was when Stiller accidentally shoots off the tail of an iguana, owned by a local hood played by Snoop Dog. It turns out to not lead to a shootout, because they all determine that iguanas grow their tails back. I also like it when the cops meet at the home of the two drug dealers. Rather than being unsophisticated, Bateman and Vaughn are excellent as portraying themselves as drug dealers masquerading as sophisticated members of San Francisco's gentry. They even talk about the charities they are involved in. I also like how Hutch and Starsky are seen as clowns, treated with disrespect and contempt by their fellow officers. Christopher Penn was excellent as a cop who thinks that Starsky is someone who is an oddball to the unit. This rings "real life", where people often do jobs where there is not much visible reward. The police chief, played by 70s actor Fred Williamson, is very good as someone who is so tired of the duo's antics, but somehow keeps them on because he sees potential in them. There are other things that seem completely overboard and unnecessary. The role by Will Farrell just seems weird and obtuse. The cheerleader openly stripping naked is ridiculous. America is not Norway. Believe me, even in the 70s, America was Puritan. The disco scene seemed a bit ridiculous and overboard. It just seemed to be a sidetrack. So did the scene where they dress up like Dennis Hopper and Peter Fonda. That was 1969, not 1975. It was a distraction. In the end it, it was the Grand Prix that changed my vote from a 5 to a 6. Cars were a big deal back then, and the Grand Prix was amazing. I never really got into the original TV show - Starsky and Hutch. I liked that the movie mostly succeeded in showing the 70s as they were, but went too overboard with distractions, as well.

Having not seen the original series I can't judge this movie as a remake, however it does allow me to rate the movie on its own merits. Personally I thought it was absolutely brilliant!There are good performances from Stiller and Wilson (although they do seem to play very similar characters to those we have seen them play in other movies) and Snoop Dog absolutely steals the show. Whilst it isn't smashing cinematic boundaries and revolutionising movie making, it's a funny, enjoyable movie with some scenes that had me, and my whole family, in tears with laughter. A particular example is the scene in which Starsky inadvertently pours Cocaine into his Coffee assuming it to be sugar leading to 10 minutes of side splitting comedy.Whilst fans of the old TV series may not like it for being inauthentic (although my dad, who seemed to model his fashion sense in the 70s on the show, loved the movie), on it's own this movie stands very well, and a cut above much of the mindless, unfunny drivel the seems to be calling itself comedy these days.

Starsky % Hutch was a COOL show in the 70s. It was..for the times...cutting edge. Two detectives who weren't afraid to take chances to get the bad guys off the streets..even if they had to bend the rules a little to do it. Add a car that turned heads...The "red striped tomato" as it was called...a Gran Torino...and WOW..this was THE show to tune into. Guys watched it for the action...girls watched it for the sexy stars of the moment...David Soul and Paul Michael Glaser. It was a far cry from the standard cop drama stuff...and what cop is friends with a dude names "Huggy Bear"? Who was an informant..a pimp...and well..he knew a lot about things going down on the streets. OK..so now they decide to update the show...it has become hip to bring back retro things...here we go. The casting of the main characters with Ben Stiller and Owen Wilson just did NOT work. They slightly resembled the original guys...but that is about where the similarities end. They tried...they really did...but neither could pull it off. I also always have liked Vince Vaughn in most of his films...and in this one..he was so-so...just playing a ridiculous character who is the bad guy. Un huh..I didn't buy it. Julia Lewis did not work as his sexy girlfriend either...she kind of faded into the background. I will admit the car...THAT car...well...they got THAT right...thank goodness. After all..that car MADE that show famous for the most part. Those who are familiar with the TV show might enjoy this...but those who lived in the 70s might also be offended...are they poking fun at that era with this movie? Kind of. I liked seeing the original guys show up at the end...it tied the old with the new...too bad they did not show up earlier...it would have been interesting...and probably funny too.