Will Ferrell and Mark Wahlberg serve as a pair of mismatched police detectives: half buddy cop, half odd couple. When the precinct's resident superstars (The Rock and Samuel L. Jackson, in a brief-but-hilarious partnership) meet a tragic fate, the resulting vacuum drives half the building to audition as their replacements. Everybody wants to be that guy on the front page, dressed to the nines with a noisy muscle car, suavely boasting of this week's big arrest. Despite his perennial desk-jockey status, Ferrell lets Wahlberg talk him into that sexy pursuit. And, as one might expect, soon they're in over their heads, up against some sort of loosely-defined international financial scheme.

The plot doesn't hold up to scrutiny, but _The Other Guys_ isn't really about the narrative, anyway. The whole idea is to let Ferrell bounce off walls and run with silly side gags, just like he did in his previous collaborations with director Adam McKay. As always, that loose approach allows for some funny unscripted material, but it also produces several stale bits that hang on for too long. It's probably safe to say the formula has slipped past the sell-by date after similarly rowdy, one-note concepts like _Anchorman_ and _Talladega Nights_. Wahlberg isn't the world's best straight man, either, though he holds his own in the hyper-indulgent action scenes, and Michael Keaton picks up some of that comedic slack in a slim supporting role.

As light entertainment goes, this is perfectly suitable (if extremely scattered) but it's neither as inventive nor as uproarious as McKay and Ferrell's best.