The Other Guys (2010) 
 
 Is it possible to run a bait-and-switch scam in reverse? I can’t think of another way to describe the odd trick pulled off by “The Other Guys,” a new goofballs-and-fireballs comedy directed by Adam McKay . The closing credit sequence is, in effect, a tease for a movie quite different from the one that has just concluded. 
 
 Bold, brightly colored charts and graphs fill the screen with enraging data about bloated chief-executive bonuses, billion-dollar bank bailouts, Ponzi schemes and other entries in the encyclopedia of modern financial infamy. Looking at these shocking numbers in isolation, you might be tempted to think that you had just watched an angry populist satire skewering the powerful and the privileged. But such topical provocation has been missing from commercial American comedy for a very long time, and “The Other Guys” is no exception. Its plot does feature a devious equity-fund manager (played by the reliable British weasel-for-hire Steve Coogan) and a Wall Street vixen, but the plot is neither the movie’s point nor its most memorable feature. 
 
 Instead, Mr. McKay plays to his strengths and those of his frequent collaborator and the movie’s star, Will Ferrell. In other words, “The Other Guys” is most authentically itself when it indulges in a free-form but nonetheless highly disciplined silliness that has the effect of dissolving, rather than piquing, whatever worldly anger or frustration you may be harboring. Once again, and for the first time in a while, Mr. Ferrell uses his big body, his quick mind and his infinitely fungible voice to yoke disparate and ridiculous traits into a brand new and yet instantly archetypal comic character. 
 
 Allen Gamble, Mr. Ferrell’s mild-mannered, desk-bound police detective, lacks the pompous aggression of Ron Burgundy in “Anchorman,” the aw-shucks aggression of Ricky Bobby in “Talladega Nights” or the infantile aggression of Brennan Huff in “Step Brothers” (all directed by Mr. McKay). Instead, he is aggressively, ostentatiously, explosively passive — a combustible milquetoast. Gamble is timid, gullible, irresistible to gorgeous women and yet oblivious to their interest. He makes no sense at all, except in the absurd context of the movie’s craziest moments. 
 
 Gamble’s foil is Terry Hoitz, an unlucky detective played by Mark Wahlberg, who looks like an inflamed bantam rooster next to Mr. Ferrell’s timorous ostrich. Actually, the two of them supply a more vivid — if less comprehensible — zoological metaphor in the film’s funniest scene, a rhetorical sparring match in which lions battle tunas for animal-kingdom supremacy. 
 
 When it operates in this nonsensical zone of verbal riffing and broad slapstick (the most inspired example of which is a brawl at a funeral conducted in respectful whispers), “The Other Guys” provides some pretty good laughs. Dwayne Johnson and Samuel L. Jackson make fun of their action-hero personae and then step aside to let Mr. Ferrell and Mr. Wahlberg do their thing. Those two are gracious enough to cede a little room to Michael Keaton, as the leathery precinct captain, and to Rob Riggle and Damon Wayans Jr., as Gamble and Hoitz’s obnoxious squad room rivals. ||||| Ron Burgundy’s Boob Tube Goes 24 Hours a Day ‘Anchorman 2,’ Starring Will Ferrell and Steve Carell 
 
 “Anchorman 2: The Legend Continues” is in danger of being overshadowed by its own marketing campaign . The recent media appearances by Ron Burgundy — impersonated, if you need reminding, by Will Ferrell — have the quality of commercial performance art. He has been ubiquitous, hawking Dodge Durango trucks , accepting a tribute from a journalism school and matching wits with members of the profession he exists to lampoon. That television news has so eagerly embraced Ron Burgundy may be evidence that the “Anchorman” movies don’t go far enough, satirically speaking. The man may be a vain, ethically obtuse, generally clueless buffoon, but it would not occur to him to allow a fictional character on his air to sell a product. He’s no George Stephanopoulos. 
 
 The new movie, meanwhile, recaptures the silly, sloppy spirit of its predecessor, minus the crucial element of surprise. It’s a frequently amusing, occasionally hilarious, rarely unpleasant grab bag of mild mockery and inspired lunacy, decked out with cameos from beloved comic performers and random celebrities. There is jazz flute-playing and a big news-team rumble, which fans will be glad to see but which don’t have quite the same impact the second time around. 
 
 The first “Anchorman,” released in the summer of 2004, marked a watershed in the emergence of what French critics (who take such things very seriously) have declared a new golden age of American comedy. Directed, like the sequel, by Adam McKay and produced by Judd Apatow, it combined aggressive, obnoxious humor with disarming, childish sweetness and gave the world a handful of immortal catchphrases. 
 
 It has all stayed classy, even if it’s not such a big deal anymore. This time, as the ’70s shade into the ’80s, offering new wardrobe and song-cue opportunities, Ron and his pals find themselves present for the birth of 24-hour cable news. Ron and his wife, Veronica Corningstone (Christina Applegate), have a young son (named Walter, as in Cronkite, played by Judah Nelson), but their relationship hits a snag when she is promoted over him at the network that moved them out of San Diego. Ron, his male pride wounded and his professional dignity challenged, goes into a tailspin that is halted when a cable producer (Dylan Baker) recruits him for a new all-news-all-the-time venture. “That’s the stupidest idea I’ve ever heard,” Ron exclaims. That may be the smartest thing he has ever said. 
 
 The movie traces the mythic origins of the worst of modern cable news — the mindless jingoism, the split-screen shouting, the cluttered graphics, the breathless coverage of car chases and celebrity nonsense — to Ron’s initiative. “I’m the one who opened the bottle and let the genie out,” he says proudly. But the whole point of the “Anchorman” franchise has always been that you can’t stay mad at this guy. You can almost imagine — or at least wish — that the real people responsible for the coarsening of civic discourse are just dumb and lovable, rather than greedy and evil. Ron may be sexist, pompous, politically insensitive and hideously dressed, but Mr. Ferrell, with his lumbering frame and twinkling eyes, always tugs him back toward cuddliness. 
 
 He is joined by the sidekicks from “Anchorman” — David Koechner, Steve Carell and Paul Rudd — and a few new faces. Meagan Good shows admirable gameness as Ron’s designated straight man, his temporary love interest and the occasion for some pretend-provocative bouts of racial humor. The clueless, nervous white guy at an African-American family dinner is one of the oldest jokes in the book, and Mr. Ferrell and Mr. McKay don’t exactly write a new page. But again, no one is likely to get too mad at Ron’s jive talking or his old-school male chauvinism. You might as well object to his mustache. 
 
 Some viewers may be bored, however, as this legend meanders down a few comic blind alleys. A movie like “Anchorman 2,” in essence a very long character-based sketch, is always a hit-and-miss affair. The sheer density of the jokes guarantees a few laughs for every taste, though, and the loose, improvisational energy of the performers keeps things lively. The original cast members show the passage of time in their faces and bodies, with the uncanny exception of Mr. Rudd, the Dorian Gray of the New American Comedy. 
 
 The sillier “Anchorman 2” gets, the better it works. In other words, it pretty much belongs to Mr. Carell, as the transcendently dim weatherman Brick Tamland, and to Kristen Wiig, as Chani, a co-worker who turns out to be Brick’s soul mate. Their romance lifts the movie into a realm of pure nonsense, and their graceful, inventive idiocy makes the rest of it look labored and overdone. 
 
 Which is not to say that Brick and Chani should have their own movie. Too much of any one thing would spoil the fun of the whole, which depends on quick transitions from one setup to the next and an overall sense of anarchic busyness. “Anchorman 2” supplies that, as expected, even as it also feels like old news. 
 
 “Anchorman 2: The Legend Continues” is rated PG-13 (Parents strongly cautioned). Just naughty enough for cable. 
 
 Anchorman 2 
 
 The Legend Continues 
 
 Opens on Wednesday. 
 
 Directed by Adam McKay; written by Will Ferrell and Mr. McKay; director of photography, Oliver Wood; edited by Brent White and Melissa Bretherton; music by Andrew Feltenstein and John Nau; production design by Clayton Hartley; costumes by Susan Matheson; produced by Judd Apatow, Mr. Ferrell and Mr. McKay; released by Paramount Pictures. Running time: 1 hour 59 minutes. 
 
 WITH: Will Ferrell (Ron Burgundy), Steve Carell (Brick Tamland), Paul Rudd (Brian Fantana), David Koechner (Champ Kind), Christina Applegate (Veronica Corningstone), Meagan Good (Linda Jackson), James Marsden (Jack Lime), Josh Lawson (Kench Allenby), Kristen Wiig (Chani), Dylan Baker (Freddie Shapp) and Judah Nelson (Walter Burgundy). ||||| NEW YORK (AP) — In the annals of film festival flops — from unexpected boos to red-carpet gaffes — the premiere of the Will Ferrell, Kevin Hart comedy "Get Hard" will go down as a doozy. 
 
 In this image released by Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc., Kevin Hart, right, and Will Ferrell appear in a scene from "Get Hard." (AP Photo/Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc., Patti Perret) (Associated Press) 
 
 In this image released by Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc., Kevin Hart, top, and Will Ferrell appear in a scene from "Get Hard." (AP Photo/Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc., Patti Perret) (Associated Press) 
 
 After the film premiered last week at the South By Southwest Film Festival, during a Q&A with director Ethan Cohen, an audience member voiced not so much a question as a harsh judgment. "This film seems racist," he said, using an expletive. Another audience member also asked if the film, about a hedge fund manager (Ferrell) who witlessly hires a law-abiding acquaintance (Hart) to prepare him for maximum security prison after being sentenced for fraud, was perpetuating stereotypes. 
 
 That sound you might have heard emanating from Austin was the loud cursing of marketing executives for the film, which opens Friday. 
 
 Though film festival Q&As are often filled with questionable observations, these atypically blunt rebukes received outsized attention, drawing headlines from The Los Angeles Times and others. The damage continued with early reviews that also questioned the movie's handling of homosexuality in various scenes. 
 
 Much of the film's comedy rests on the Ferrell character's fears of being raped in prison, and among his preparations is an attempt to have oral sex with a gay man in a bathroom stall. A critic for The Guardian wrote that future viewers "will be astonished that such a negative portrayal of homosexuality persisted in the mainstream in 2015." Variety wrote that the film was "undone by some of the ugliest gay-panic humor to befoul a studio release in recent memory." 
 
 After initially seeking to avoid the controversy (Cohen, Ferrell and Hart cancelled interviews with The Associated Press before Ferrell and Hart rescheduled them), the film's stars and producers are vigorously defending their comedy as not a representation of stereotypes but a satire of them. 
 
 "Any time you're going to do an R-rated comedy, you're going to offend someone," said Ferrell in an interview alongside Hart. He continued: "But that's kind of what we do. We provoke. We prod. We also show a mirror to what's already existing out there. We're playing fictitious characters who are articulating some of the attitudes and misconceptions that already exist." 
 
 "Get Hard" was written by Cohen along with Jay Martel and Ian Roberts, writing-producers from the sketch comedy show "Key and Peele." This is Cohen's directorial debut after penning screenplays to films like "Idiocracy" and "Tropic Thunder," a film that memorably flirted with racially sensitive territory in Robert Downey Jr.'s lampoon, in black face, of a Method actor run amok. 
 
 In many ways, the comedy of "Get Hard" works similarly. Just as the humor of Downey's actor wasn't in his favor but about his own self-obsessive, racist delusions, Ferrell's character is a parody of the narrow perspective of the elitist one percent. He hires Hart's carwash owner and family man under the mistaken presumption that he's been to prison, that he's "hard." 
 
 "You're looking at two characters that judged each other by their cover," said Hart. "And after peeling off some of the layers to their onion, they realize that, 'Oh my God, this isn't the person I thought it was from the jump. It's a completely different person.' And that road to friendship ensues." 
 
 "Get Hard" was conceived as a way to pair Hart and Ferrell, two of the most popular and bankable stars in comedy. Whether the film succeeds on its own terms or not, it's an attempt (one generally uncommon in wide-release studio films) to comment on contemporary issues of inequality and race within the context of a broad, often crude comedy. 
 
 Adam McKay, Ferrell's longtime collaborator and a producer of "Get Hard," said any backlash has been overinflated by "lazy journalism." 
 
 "Given that we're a country with runaway income inequality, more people in jail than any other country, this is what people are crowing about? Trying to in a funny way deal with these issues?" said McKay in a phone interview with fellow producer Chris Henchy. "It really kind of got me mad. It's just cheap is what it is." 
 
 McKay said the film was fashioned as "a silly, filthy comedy" on the outside, but a satire of income inequality underneath. Seeing the film as racist, he says, is "kind of ridiculous and disheartening," since its intention is to parody those who live in bubbles of wealth and prejudice. To claims of homophobia he protested: "Any individual going to maximum security prison would be afraid of violence and sexual assault. To equate that with homosexuality is ridiculous." 
 
 Others have agreed, albeit more skeptically. In reviewing the movie for Vanity Fair, Eric D. Snider wrote that the film wasn't offensive to him as a homosexual; it's just not funny enough. 
 
 "It's not mean-spirited, and it's panicky straight guys, not gays, who are the target," wrote Snider. "It's just disappointing, that's all." 
 
 Any bad buzz for "Get Hard" has likely been partially alleviated by the goodwill both Ferrell and Hart have in storage, as well as the distraction of Ferrell's dependably entertaining late-night appearances. The NAACP and GLAAD have not commented on the film. 
 
 "Here's the beautiful thing about Will and myself: You're looking at two guys that are no strangers to criticism," said Hart. "The critic's job is to critique. I don't think I've ever had a great review on a film that I've done. Not one. Everybody always has had something to say. And if they're not talking, then you have a problem." 
 
 Whether the talking around "Get Hard" will affect it at the box office remains to be seen. 
 
 "People will go see it and there probably will be some people who are offended. It's definitely a very dirty movie and it's harsh," says McKay. "It's a good-hearted movie at its root. Everything comes out in the wash with movies because they hang around for, like 78 years. You always end up seeing what a movie really is in the long run." 
 
 ___ 
 
 Lennox reported from Los Angeles.
– Despite a few reviewers who think it’s basically an extended Saturday Night Live sketch, The Other Guys snagged a high score on the Tomatometer—and some are calling the Will Ferrell/Mark Wahlberg cop comedy the funniest movie of 2010: If you’re tired of Ferrell's typical “clueless blowhard,” never fear: director Adam McKay “shrewdly varies the formula," making Ferrell the “square” and Wahlberg the “aspiring alpha dog,” writes Joe Williams in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. “The Other Guys is the funniest movie of the year.” Ferrell and McKay "have collaborated on three other movies, but they've never been so slyly funny as they are in The Other Guys, a buddy-cop satire so hilarious that even longtime Ferrell haters (me) can't resist it,” admits Connie Ogle in the Miami Herald. “The humor is that rare perfect balance of broad and satiric.” Fun cameos include “Samuel L. Jackson and Dwayne Johnson in a hilarious send-up of badass cops,” and Michael Keaton, who nearly steals the show “as an emasculated police captain moonlighting as a retail store manager,” writes Joshua Katzman in the Chicago Reader. Rather than a full-length film, “the movie’s best bits would stand alone nicely on YouTube, or on Funnyordie.com, the comic video boutique of which Mr. McKay is an owner and where he sometimes dabbles in short-form hilarity,” writes AO Scott in the New York Times.