According to ye olde search engine, a farce involves ‘buffoonery’, ‘horseplay’, ‘crude characterisation’ as well as ‘ludicrously improbable situations’. So I’m basically just using that term as an excuse to discuss various moments of film that have provided me with some major league lols. First up…the opening sequence from The Other Guys, a hella underrated joint that still stands in the second position of my favourite Will Ferrell films (sorry, Elf’s still number one).
Once in a while, a film comes along that’s so darn quotable that pretty much every line’s a banger. Watching it an insane number of times over the years with other house members helps, for sure, but seriously, Adam Mackay’s 2010 classic deserves more love. And it’s got a sequence in the end credit scene that surely alludes to Mackay’s interest in making The Big Short several years later, and The Big Short’s definitely got enough love. Not bashing it, it’s a very good film, but The Other Guys needs more love too. Anyway.
The fancy omniscient voiceover man (Ice-T, if you didn’t know) immediately lets us know about NYC cop legends Dansen and Highsmith (Samuel L Jackson and Dwayne Johnson on top tier comedic form). Cut to Dansen riding on a criminal’s car roof with Highsmith on the police wheels as he’s on the chase. One of the criminals shoots a bullet that takes out the car’s police alarm. Problem? No problem at all, because Highsmith pops a fresh one on the roof, ready to go. Cool. Dansen avoids the numerous police bullets being fired at him from the roof and hops back into the police car, nice and smooth. Not without putting a mark on the vehicle, though.
Star quote: Highsmith (to Dansen): ‘Oh dude you put a ding in my HOOD’
Cue more bullets and carnage, which eventually involves Dansen and Highsmith’s car going through a whole ass bus. Yep, you heard me. None of the passengers are harmed though. Just to lighten the mood, though, Highsmith comes in with another zinger:
Star quote: ‘Did someone call 91 holy SHIT’
Suddenly, with no coherent cuts, Dansen is now manning the bus driver seat with the car still wedged all the way through said bus. Hey, it’s comedy, here. We don’t question the logistics. The criminals get fed up with the chase and hop out of their car, getting out machine guns to try and put a stop to the battle. Bad choice road, guys. Dansen swerves the bus and the car does a fast eject from the bus for some reason or other, leading to a smooth slow-mo shot of Highsmith going all gun blazing as he aims at the bad guys.
Star quote: ‘You have the right. To remain. SILENT. I wanna hear you SCREEAM’
Perhaps my favourite quote of the scene. Probably because it makes no damn sense. The criminals clearly aren’t going to stay silent with their weapons. And Highsmith seems to be sending mixed messages when he subsequently tells them to make a lot of noise. But let’s not play with semantics here, k? It’s a comedy. It’s farce. And what humorous farce it is when the car catapults into a building and everything around it explodes. You know me. I like my completely unexplained explosions (see: numerous unexplained explosions in SpongeBob SquarePants and other examples). Nice.