Sunday, April 11, 2004
You must, repeat, must, see Starsky & Hutch. I went last night with Gemma. Now I looked up the American reviews on Metacritic about a month or two ago and they were divided between "This is the best thing to happen to the TV-show-into-movie genre in years!" and "This is so lame and unfunny." But I was sold by only one thing: I had read that Hutch (Owen Wilson) has to put Starsky (Ben Stiller) to bed after a cocaine-fuelled disco inferno, and he touches him on the chest and says "Go to sleep, tiny dancer." Gold! It's also directed by the same guy who did Road Trip, which I found goddamn hilarious.
Anyway, it was all that and more, although we agreed it was not quite as good as Zoolander. A lot of the humour came from the interplay between the actors, who do what they've done in just about every film they've appeared in: Stiller plays the uptight loser, and Wilson plays the infuriatingly laid-back and sexually successful winner. More of the humour came from the general recreation of the Seventies. But one thing that was not funny was how hot Owen Wilson is.
I also really enjoyed the obvious homoeroticism of the film, something that is said to have displeased David Soul, who played Hutch in the original TV series, who said something really naive like "They were men's men!" If (like me) you found Frodo and Sam's hobbitish camaraderie incredibly, hilariously gay (then check out this site), you will be in hysterics at this film, in which, among other things, Starsky gets misty when Hutch sings a gooey guitar ballad to him, and fantasises about the two of them frolicking on the beach wearing matching Starsky & Hutch t-shirts. Not to mention the locker room towel scene and the 'dragon scene' with an uncredited Will Ferrell. My god, I'm laughing now just remembering it.
Other piss funny moments:
- Starsky's disco duel with a guy who is like the most low-rent version of Disco Stu from The Simpsons.
- Starsky and Hutch's Easy Rider homage.
- Starsky runs along the beach wearing a pair of headphones with twin antennae and does frenzied karate under a pier.
- The aforementioned 'tiny dancer' scene. For me it's as hilarious as the Zoolander scene where Owen Wilson goes "Don't you know I'm loco?"
- Starsky visits the grave of his dead mum, a hotshot cop, and places a votive donut on her gravestone.
- The bad guy, played by Vince Vaughn, has invented a revolutionary kind of cocaine called "New Coke"
- Dumbarse cops mock our duo as "the Captain and Tenille" and "Sonny and Cher"
But I'm also terribly excited to see the following dumb movies:
Confessions of a Teenage Drama Queen (looks like Clueless and Honey wrapped in one)
Win A Date With Tad Hamilton (directed by Robert Luketic of Legally Blonde and Titsiana Booberini fame)
Spiderman II (Tash looked at me pityingly and said "It's Tobey Maguire, isn't it?")
I'm sure there are more but I can't think of them right now.
Anyway, it was all that and more, although we agreed it was not quite as good as Zoolander. A lot of the humour came from the interplay between the actors, who do what they've done in just about every film they've appeared in: Stiller plays the uptight loser, and Wilson plays the infuriatingly laid-back and sexually successful winner. More of the humour came from the general recreation of the Seventies. But one thing that was not funny was how hot Owen Wilson is.
I also really enjoyed the obvious homoeroticism of the film, something that is said to have displeased David Soul, who played Hutch in the original TV series, who said something really naive like "They were men's men!" If (like me) you found Frodo and Sam's hobbitish camaraderie incredibly, hilariously gay (then check out this site), you will be in hysterics at this film, in which, among other things, Starsky gets misty when Hutch sings a gooey guitar ballad to him, and fantasises about the two of them frolicking on the beach wearing matching Starsky & Hutch t-shirts. Not to mention the locker room towel scene and the 'dragon scene' with an uncredited Will Ferrell. My god, I'm laughing now just remembering it.
Other piss funny moments:
- Starsky's disco duel with a guy who is like the most low-rent version of Disco Stu from The Simpsons.
- Starsky and Hutch's Easy Rider homage.
- Starsky runs along the beach wearing a pair of headphones with twin antennae and does frenzied karate under a pier.
- The aforementioned 'tiny dancer' scene. For me it's as hilarious as the Zoolander scene where Owen Wilson goes "Don't you know I'm loco?"
- Starsky visits the grave of his dead mum, a hotshot cop, and places a votive donut on her gravestone.
- The bad guy, played by Vince Vaughn, has invented a revolutionary kind of cocaine called "New Coke"
- Dumbarse cops mock our duo as "the Captain and Tenille" and "Sonny and Cher"
But I'm also terribly excited to see the following dumb movies:
Confessions of a Teenage Drama Queen (looks like Clueless and Honey wrapped in one)
Win A Date With Tad Hamilton (directed by Robert Luketic of Legally Blonde and Titsiana Booberini fame)
Spiderman II (Tash looked at me pityingly and said "It's Tobey Maguire, isn't it?")
I'm sure there are more but I can't think of them right now.
