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Starsky & Hutch

Starring: Ben Stiller, Owen Wilson, Snoop Dogg, Fred Williamson, Vince Vaughn, Juliette Lewis, Will Ferrell, Jason Bateman, Amy Smart, Carmen Electra
Director: Todd Phillips

Reviewed by Chris Ching

Starsky & Hutch, the new movie translation of the 70s cop show, has many things. Many things I thought I would never see in my lifetime: Ben Stiller fervently riding atop Owen Wilson's back, The Hogan Family's Jason Bateman showing his face on screen again, and perhaps most chillingly, the site of a half-naked Snoop Dogg whose spindly insect-like body demonstrates that anorexia may be another vice of the Doggfather.

Oh, the movie is pretty funny too. And stupid. The success or failure of the jokes in Starsky & Hutch will lie solely on the frame of mind of the viewer. In other words, check your brain at the door and you'll have a fun time.

Like The Brady Bunch Movie, Starsky & Hutch takes the tv show it's based on and cuts deep into its idiosyncrasies and clichés. So where the original show had David Starsky and Ken "Hutch" Hutchinson running, leaping, and all around cavorting with exaggerated physicality, Stiller and Wilson freely mock their macho image. Where a vague homoerotic subtext once played fleetingly in the background, this update does little to hide that maybe these two have a concealed weapon for each other. When Wilson sings "Don't Give Up On Us" (an inside joke as original Hutch David Soul had a number one hit with the song in the late seventies), Starsky looks into his eyes with a longing that dared not speak its name on 1970s television. This post, post ironic direction could have led to a mean spirited satire, but the film makers so clearly love the source material, it luckily never draws too much blood. Along with the yuk yuks, you'll get all the 70s nostalgia goodies: plenty of car chases, disco dancing, bad outfits, and even worse hair styles.

The plot, in so much as, yes, there is a vague storyline for the actors to wander through, revolves around new partners Starsky and Hutch on the trail of Cocaine criminal mastermind Reese Feldman (former heartthrob now cool character actor Vince Vaughn). It's really no deeper than that. Wilson once again does his stoned surfer dude routine, but Stiller goes for broke in embodying the uptight by the book Starsky. Stiller has always excelled as the stress ridden neurotic, and he's found a perfect outlet in a guy who will go to any length to maintain proper police procedure even if it means shooting the tail off an iguana belonging to their informant Huggy Bear.

"Fo shizzle my nipple."

Speaking of Huggy, Snoop Dogg does a commendable job as everyone's favorite pimp/snitch. In the world of rapper acting, I'd say he's a DeNiro. The other supporting roles are also well cast especially 70s blaxploitation superstar Fred Williamson as Police Captain Dody and an uncredited Will Ferrell as a Man on Man friendly convict Starsky and Hutch get evidence from at a great price. Kudos also to Chris Penn; not necessarily for his acting, but for the courage to show his incredibly Jabba- like flab on camera. For all beer bellied fellows throughout the world (myself included), I salute you!.

In the genre of tv show to movie translations, the good are far outnumbered by the bad, and I'd say Starsky & Hutch falls somewhere in the middle. It isn't The Fugitive, but it's hardly The Beverly Hillbillies. Starsky & Hutch has enough laughs to see you to the end of the movie without too much regret that you've dropped $8.50. If you see it at bargain matinee, then even better!.

Note: To coincide with the opening of Starsky & Hutch, Columbia Tristar Home Video has just released the tv show's first season on DVD. Along with 23 episodes, you get interviews with all the principals, four featurettes including one on the making of the movie, and original tv promo spots. Just don't tell anybody you got this information from Huggy Bear.

A Passing of the torch... so to speak. The Original Starsky & Hutch (David Soul & Paul Michael Glaser) with Ben Stiller and Owen Wilson.

Rating:

(2 1/2 out of 4 stars)