A lot has happened by the time we reach the showdown in the conference room, after Alan Gamble (Will Ferrell) and Terry Hoitz (Mark Whalberg) realise that the $32 billion that David Ershon (Steve Coogan) is trying to get will be extracted from the police pension fund. Men have jumped off buildings, deskpops have been deskpopped, cars have been defiled, and depressing songs full of rich history have been sung. Among other things.
At this point in time, the slow motion action scene has been worn a bit thin. It’s predictable, dull, and not particularly amusing. Switch back a while ago to The Other Guys, however, and it still remains effective. Hyperbole’s still cool. So when The White Stripes’ Icky Thump starts to ramp up and we get an extreme close-up of Alan and Terry staring at each other after they realise that shit’s about to go down, it’s still funny. Arguably, just about anything that involves Will Ferrell is going to be funny (no, I haven’t seen Holmes and Watson yet, but I’m betting he’s still amusing in it anyway). So when Alan hurls the documentation concerning the police pension fund into air and the paper somehow manages to populate the entire space of the gargantuan room, we don’t question it. When multiple bullets are fired, causing lots of glass to smash, and nobody seems to die, that’s cool. This is a 12A after all, so there’s not room for many gruesome casualties. Terry can do a dramatic table slide and avoid incurring any injuries whatsoever, and it’s all good.
A lot can happen in a brief moment when you’ve got some fine nondiegetic music playing amidst some high-octane action. Is it vaguely realistic? Of course not. If it was, that would take away the scene’s comedic genius. Just sit back and enjoy the nonsensical ride.