In 2004, a Starsky and Hutch movie directed by Todd Phillips was released, starring Ben Stiller and Owen Wilson as Starsky and Hutch (respectively), spoofing the original TV series. Two streetwise undercover cops in 1975, driving in a red 1975 Ford Gran Torino, bust drug criminals with the help of underworld player, Huggy Bear (played by Snoop Dogg). The film functions as a sort of prequel to the TV series, as it portrays when Starsky was first partnered with Hutchinson. The film also switches the personalities of the title characters. While in the TV show, Starsky was curious, laid-back, and streetwise, and Hutch was very serious and by-the-book. In the film, Starsky is the serious cop, and Hutch is laid-back. There are four Frat Pack members in this film, although not all are in major roles.
The movie contains examples of:[]
- Affectionate Parody
- Character Development: Starsky starts out as a serious cop and Hutch as a more laid-back cop , but as a result of various actions and events their personalities begin to switch by the film's end.
- Cool Car: Starsky's Gran Torino and Huggy's '76 Lincoln.
- Cultured Warrior: Huggy's beret-wearing mook: "I read it in a magazine."
- Ensemble Darkhorse: Huggy Bear, as played by Snoop Dogg.
- False Roulette: Reversed in the movie, to the terror of the perp in question.
- The Film of the Series
- Fluffy the Terrible: Deconstructed in the movie. Tiny is exactly average sized.
- Generic Graffiti: Averted. In the scene where the pair meet Huggy Bear, the tags in the background are very authentic-looking 70's style graffiti.
- Have a Gay Old Time
- Ho Yay: It wouldn't be faithful without adding a few batches of this in.
- Hidden Wire: Parodied.
- Hideous Hangover Cure
- Insistent Terminology: It's not a boat, it's a yacht.
- Intoxication Ensues: Starsky with cocaine.
- Ironic Nickname: Deconstructed. Tiny is not small enough to be really tiny, and he's not big enough for this to be an ironic nickname.
- Juggling Loaded Guns:Starsky tries to intimidate a suspect by playing Russian Roulette with him. Said suspect rolls his eyes when he sees him empty his revolver and pretend to put one bullet in, but becomes wide-eyed and panicked quickly when one of the bullets Starsky puts up his sleeve falls into the cylinder. The scene is still played for laughs since Starsky thinks he still has an empty revolver. When the suspect tries to plead to Hutch when he comes in the interrogation room, Starsky ends up shooting the wall.
- Never Trust a Trailer: Minor example - The pony Reese Feldman gave for his daughter for her birthday? In the actual movie, that's for her bat mitzvah.
- One-Scene Wonder: Two words- "Two Dragons".
- Outrun the Fireball: Averted, when Hutch's house is blown up, Willis is sent flying even though he was halfway across the street, and there was even a front yard's worth of distance between the house and the sidewalk.
- Pool Scene
- The Precious Precious Car: Starsky's Gran Torino. Unusually, the car belongs to a protagonist character, who accidentally destroys it himself (after being talked into an ill-judged jump).
- Remake Cameo: Paul Michael Glaser and David Soul (the original Starsky and Hutch) had cameos in the movie.
- Rite of Passage: The heroes pretend to be performers at a Bat Mitzvah in order to infiltrate a suspect's home.
- San Francisco: Parodied, as one such chase scene wrecks the car.
- You Know Who Said That:
Huggy Bear: Dig this man. Someone once said: "To err is human, to forgive divine." |
- Actually, it was from Alexander Pope.