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Compiled by: Jack Foley
IT boasts a great trailer, a tried and tested comedy double-act
and is based on one of the biggest shows on the Seventies - but
is the formula a success.
Starsky and Hutch is the latest TV to big screen revival, and
stars Ben Stiller and Owen Wilson as the eponymous duo, with Snoop
Dogg as Huggy Bear. It is directed by Todd Philips, of Old
School/Road Trip fame.
And while we, at IndieLondon, love it, the US reaction has been
decidedly mixed, thus far...
The good reviews were led by the likes of the New York Times,
which wrote that 'the big-screen adaptation of the 1970's television
cop show Starsky & Hutch has a crafty, can-you-dig-it? spirit'.
While the Hollywood Reporter felt that it 'cruises along
agreeably on the easy chemistry between Ben Stiller and Owen Wilson'.
Village Voice, meanwhile, opined that 'S&H's chief
pleasure is the spontaneous, sometimes quite touching rapport
between the two stars'.
But Variety wrote that 'like most movies derived from
1960s and '70s TV, Starsky & Hutch doesn't possess the kind
of ingenuity necessary to sustain feature length'.
And Entertainment Weekly wrote that 'Phillips, who started
out making creepy (and funny) documentaries, has become a canny
repackager of yesterday's schlock - a mall-friendly purveyor of
arrested comedy for an arrested world'.
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Returning to the positive vibe, however, USA Today wrote
that 'although Stiller and Wilson may be today's most overexposed
actors, they have infectious chemistry here'.
And Rolling Stone felt that 'while the gags in Starsky
and Hutch are more hit-and-miss than nonstop inspiration, the
movie does get a fair share of laughs'.
Time Magazine, meanwhile, felt that 'Starsky & Hutch
has moments of hilarity a little greater than you might expect
of a movie that is just out for a lazy good time'.
And E! Online wrote that 'the laughs are spotty and feel
like a stitched-together series of sketches, but the highs outweigh
the flatfooted lows, and the duo definitely works the comedic
beat'.
However, back to the negatives, and the Chicago Tribune
concluded that 'if a movie rises and falls solely on the basis
of its laughs, it better have a lot of them. Starsky & Hutch
doesn't'.
While the Los Angeles Times felt that 'no one involved
with Starsky & Hutch actually seems to care about the movie'.
LA Weekly, meanwhile, noted that 'Hollywood's latest McMovie
- name-brand recognition as raison d’être or, if you
will, creative bankruptcy on a very large scale'.
And Newsday rounded on it, by saying that 'being a period
piece hardly excuses Starsky & Hutch from being a cliche-ridden,
uncharming and tiresome exercise in recycled humor'.
But the final word goes to Eclipse Magazine, which stated
that it is 'mildly amusing and true to the spirit of both the
show and its host decade'.
The film opens in London next week, before going nationwide a
week later.
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