Movie Review: Starsky and Hutch

By Zack Roddy

From director Todd Phillips and the creative team that brought Old School and Road Trip comes Starsky and Hutch, a new comedy based loosely on the mid-seventies television series of the same name. The film stars Ben Stiller as David Starsky and Owen Wilson as Ken ‘Hutch’ Hutchinson. The film’s supporting cast is made up of actors such as Vince Vaughan, Will Ferrell and Snoop Dogg.

The year is 1975, and drug dealer Reese Feldman (Vaughan) has the biggest shipment of cocaine ever to enter Bay City, and it is virtually undetectable. Enter David Starsky, an uptight, neurotic police detective who always gets his man, and whose main joys are working out, shooting his gun, and driving his souped up 1974 Ford Torino. Ken ‘Hutch’ Hutchinson’s joys are quite different. Few missteps include womanizing, showing up late for work, and mysteriously “losing” evidence money. So naturally, they are perfect for each other. When the pair are joined together as partners, their first assignment is to track down the cocaine dealers.

The two get off to rocky start, but a friendship soon forms. With the help of street informant Huggy Bear (Snoop Dogg) and two beautiful Bay City cheerleaders (Carmen Electra, Amy Smart), Starsky and Hutch get themselves caught up in a series of twists and turns that often go hilariously out of control. Among a few of their mishaps are a mime performance at a bat mitzvah, a game of Russian roulette gone awry, a car jump onto a boat, a biker bar fight, and a knife fight. When Feldman gets Starsky and Hutch thrown off the case, it is up to the two crime fighters to find the criminals on their own before the bad guys get away.

Starsky and Hutch is an awesome film, and I do recommend seeing it. It is blazingly funny, and has fun poking at the television series, and is filmed just like a 70's television show. Adding to the fun is a great seventies soundtrack, and cameo roles by Will Ferrell as jailbird Big Earl and Paul Michael Glaser and David Soul the original Starsky and Hutch duo. Look for the scene where Starky and Hutch speak to Big Earl in jail, it is priceless.