Starsky & Hutch

Starsky & Hutch-720P

Starsky & Hutch-1080P

Starsky & Hutch-480P

Starsky & Hutch-720P

Starsky & Hutch-1080P

Starsky & Hutch-480P

source: Starsky & Hutch

The original TV series, Starsky and Hutch, revolutionised - in fact, probably invented the buddy-cop genre. It was as hugely popular, possibly more-so than Charlie's Angels in its day, so it was inevitable that after the success of Charlie's Angels, S+H would be next in line for the movie treatment. But whereas Charlie's Angels was dynamic and plot-driven, with (a good many) knowing references to the original series and its disco-seventies setting it still retained a respect for the Angels. S+H has no respect for the original series... instead of action, it plays it purely for laughs, turning the original streetwise tough-guy cops in to fumbling buffoons. While the film will undoubtedly be popular, its popularity is unlikely to be with fans of the original series - for two reasons, one is as they approach their forties they are hardly core cinema audience, but mainly because no-one with fond memories of the original series could warm to this irreverent crap. Snoop Dogg is superb as Huggy Bear, and has the one stand out comedic line in the film. In reflection to our heroes being portrayed as idiots, the originally flaky Huggy is upgraded to a super-fly pimp daddy. At the end of the day, it is Huggy who captures the bad guy, as Starsky and Hutch mess up disasterously, and not entirely amusingly. The final scene, where Paul Michael Glaser and David Soul, make a cameo to hand over the keys of the famous Gran Torino (the REAL star of the movie), merely serves to drive home the fact that S+H2004 is really Starsky and Hutch light. The original actors tower over their modern counterparts both literally, and in terms of screen presence. Starsky and Hutch is not unwatchable, Stiller and Wilson are likable as ever, but on this occasion, the material lets them down. Without the value of the original series, Starsky and Hutch is about as good a movie as Hollywood Homicide was... and that's no recommendation.

Watching this movie made me wonder if the people who made it ever bothered to watch a single episode of the original Starsky and Hutch. They did nothing but take the name (and the car) and paste in on a completely forgettable, witless and insipid little cop movie. Ben Stiller is especially yawn-inducing as Starsky, a character with no personality other than a tendency to whininess. Owen Wilson brings some slight color to his role, almost enough to qualify as a character. Together, they come off as nothing more than a couple of stupid losers driving around in a red Torino. There's not much reason for these two to be in this movie anyway, as it's nothing more than a barrage of failed comedy sketches. The film offers a couple of chuckles, most notably when the big car jump at the end goes wrong, but it's hardly worth sitting through all the mundane characters and groan-inducing comedy to get to them. The best part - by far - is the '70s music; It at least offers a nice background to the tedium taking place on screen. It would have been more accurate to title this movie "Dumb and Dumber - With A Badge" or perhaps "Police Academy 8: Cops Without A Clue". But of course, the marketing exec's probably found out that titling it "Starsky and Hutch" would bring in 17% more revenue, so there you go.

Starsky and Hutch was pretty damn funny. Stiller and Wilson were exceptional in the two roles. Stiller played the "by the book", straight and narrow cop, Starsky, and Owen Wilson played the loose, largely irresponsible, and borderline criminal, Hutch. I never saw the show to have as a reference which I think may have helped me enjoy the movie more. Vince Vaughn's character didn't do much for the movie, but Will Ferrel's character certainly did. In fact, the scene with Will Ferrel had to be one of, if not the funniest scene in the movie. It seemed like a great tribute to the original to me.