They’ve become a comedy duo in recent years.  Can you name the films in which Ben Stiller and Owen Wilson have appeared together?  Zoolander will first come to mind but other films include The Royal Tenenbaums, Meet The Parents and even, The Cable Guy.

Cinematic remakes of popular television shows are commonplace today and I feel a natural reluctance towards them.  Why do we need to make them?  Are we trying to relive our past?  Can’t we just rent some old Starsky & Hutch episodes on dvd or something?  Wouldn’t the $60m budget be better spent on about 10 other smaller films with better scripts and more original ideas?

I’ll spare you from my continuing tirade and report the good news on the Starsky & Hutch remake – it’s worth seeing!  Not really for the screenplay but for the comedy stylings of Stiller and Wilson (not forgetting co-star Vince Vaughn who I’m more use to seeing in dramatic films).  As Zoolander showed, they work very well along side each other.

In this film, David Starsky (Stiller) and Ken Hutchinson (Wilson) are partnered together by the chief of police.  Starsky’s the straight shooting officer who does everything by the book and Hutchinson’s the guy who didn’t even read the book.  They may be the odd couple but the chief is fed up with both of them and sees their pairing as punishment for both.

When a dead body washes up on shore, it marks the beginning of a large investigation.  They receive word that a large drug deal is to go down in the coming weeks and they want to make sure they’re the heroes who save the day.  The lead suspect is Reese Feldman (Vaughn) but they just can’t find enough evidence to pin it on him.  Mistakenly they ambush his house (in a very funny scene) and Starsky and Hutch are promptly kicked off the force.  It’s not going to stop them going after Feldman though and the action packed climax has it all (including a cameo or two).

An ideal release for the Easter holidays, Starsky & Hutch is light hearted entertainment.  An ideal popcorn and coke movie.