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BY PEG ALOI
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Confession: my sister and I loved this show as teenagers. I loved Starsky, she loved Hutch. Hutch always got the girl, but Starsky had the Car: that red Ford Gran Torino, a/k/a the Tomato. In partnered-cop shows, chemistry between actors is all. Owen Wilson as the laid-back charmer and Ben Stiller as the neurotic drone are familiar enough (The Royal Tenenbaums, Zoolander); here, they don’t parrot their ’70s counterparts so much as reinvent them. Establishing Hutch (Wilson) as a smooth-talking cop on the take and Starsky (Stiller) as an uptight naïf is a weak start to what turns out to be a solid film: a string of hilarious one-liners and absurd situations (plus plenty of car chases, explosions, and undercover stings) rubber-cementing a plot line that involves the pursuit of a clever cocaine dealer (a wonderful Vince Vaughn). The cast shines: Juliette Lewis as Vaughn’s girlfriend; Carmen Electra and Amy Smart as professional cheerleaders; Sean Penn as a red-faced, bullying cop. The only trip-up is Snoop Dogg as pimp/informant Huggy Bear. Antonio Fargas in the role was short, wiry, and caffeinated; Snoop is tall, stringy, and as smooth as Remy Martin — he’s just not an actor. Todd Philipps (he of the frat-boy fodder Old School and Road Trip) directs this parody homage with a deft hand; the result is an action film that is also a scrumptious slice of a much-maligned era. Phillips wallows, almost affectionately, in the garish details (the costumes, hair, the sets, and the music — a must-have soundtrack of hot funk and sugary pop — are all dead on) that made watching TV in 1975 so much fun. (100 minutes)
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