Based on the TV show which ran for 93 episodes from 1975 to 1979, the movie version of Starsky & Hutch teams up Ben Stiller and Owen Wilson as the bickering California cops.
Having never seen the show I worried that the film, which is part homage, part loving spoof, would go over my head. Fortunately the script is funny enough in its own right that even if you do not know the material it spoofs you will still find much to enjoy.
Set in "Bay City", California - our two heroes come from decidedly different schools of policing. Starsky (Stiller) is intense and highly-focused whereas Hutch (Wilson) is laid back and prepared to make a quick buck on the side. Forced together by their Police Chief when nobody else is prepared to work with them, they struggle to overcome their differences and become a team.
After discovering a corpse in the water, Starsky and Hutch find themselves hot on the trail of druglord Reese Feldman (played wonderfully by Vince Vaughan). Feldman has developed a new form of cocaine that smells and tastes of sweetner, making it almost completely undetectable.
Whilst none of the elements of this film are particularly fresh in and of themselves, here execution is everything. Stiller and Wilson are some of the best bickerers in the business and they do a fine job here, demonstrating enormous chemistry and excellent comic timing.
They are joined by a fun cast that includes Snoop Dogg as Huggy Bear, Jason Bateman as Feldman's business partner and Will Ferrell in a hilariously overblown cameo role.
The film also has a number of excellent set pieces including a disco dance-off (very Zoolander but done just as nicely), infiltrating a Bat Mitzvah and another infiltration scene near the end. Sending up both the seventies and cop show cop-outs (does putting a stetson and a false moustache on really make you undetectable?), it packs enough laughs to ensure its 101 minute run time rarely drags.
Starsky and Hutch may break no boundaries but it is an enjoyable romp and a spoof that feels genuinely affectionate towards the material it sends up.