Starsky & Hutch (2004)

Directed by Todd Phillips. Starring Ben Stiller, Owen Wilson, Vince Vaughn, Jason Bateman, Snoop Dogg, Fred Williamson, Juliette Lewis, Amy Smart, Carmen Electra, Will Ferrell, Chris Penn, George Cheung. [PG-13]

Slick spoof adaptation of the same-named 70s buddy cop show; here, mismatched Starsky (the determined, by-the-book one played by Stiller) and Hutch (the laidback, streetwise one payed by Wilson) go undercover to investigate a murder that leads them to Vaughn’s kingpin. Aimless and slapdash; mileage is bound to vary, but even within the sketchy structure, there are several funny episodes, even ones that come at a cost to the story’s flimsy logic and rhythm. The pot shots taken at the era’s fashion, hairstyles, attitudes, and milieu are pretty obvious…but that doesn’t mean they’re not sometimes still quite humorous. Stiller and Wilson have an easy rapport, even when it lazily negates the terms of their broadly-defined relationship; Snoop Dogg is assigned the Antonio Fargas role of jive-talkin’ informant Huggy Bear, but ends up playing, well, Snoop Dogg in the 70s. Ferrell went unbilled; the original S&H (Paul Michael Glaser and David Soul) cameo.

60/100