Starsky & Hutch

After my recent post about the Charlie's Angels films of the early 2000's, I decided it was time to take a look back at another movie based on a 1970's T.V. show. Starsky & Hutch is a 2004 comedy starring Ben Stiller and Owen Wilson as the lead characters David Starsky and Ken Hutchinson. Just like those Charlie's Angels movies, I hadn't seen this movie since it's initial release and was wondering how it's held up over the years.

Unlike many adaptations of older T.V. shows, this movie doesn't update the setting to the present day and instead sets the film sometime in the 1970's. We are quickly introduced to two very different detectives who, like in virtually all buddy-cop comedies, are assigned to be partners. The big case that the two need to crack involves taking down a drug kingpin named Reese Feldman (played by Vince Vaughn). Feldman and his partner in crime Kevin (played by Jason Bateman) have developed a new kind of cocaine that isn't detectable to drug sniffing dogs and seems to be nothing but an artificial sweetener when subjected to crime-lab tests. With some help from a street-smart informant named Huggy Bear (played by Snoop Dogg), Starsky and Hutch eventually learn that a massive amount of this new cocaine is about to be sold. Of course this is a comedy so, while the end goal is as simple as stopping the bad guy, the duo finds themselves in more than their fair share of wacky scenarios along the way.

There aren't a ton of jokes that I thought were great while rewatching it but I felt that the combination of solid chemistry between Stiller and Wilson, along with a good supporting cast was enough to carry the movie. In fact, it's those supporting characters (mainly Snoop Dogg as Huggy Bear and Fred Williamson as the police chief) that provided me with the biggest laughs. I don't think this is one of the all-time great comedies and I don't think it's a movie that begs to be revisited if you've already seen it. 

Good for a few laughs but overall, it's just ok.

2.5 out of 5