Starsky & Hutch Review

Ready yourselves for big collars, enormous bell bottoms and the naffest of naff hair-dos because the '70s detectives of choice are back and they've brought their beloved red and white striped Ford Gran Torino with them. Ben Stiller plays obsessive cop David Starsky who's made it his personal mission to track down and nick any ne'er do well that crosses his path in Bay City, California. Owen Wilson, meanwhile, is the terminally laidback Ken "Hutch" Hutchison who's more interested in making a quick buck than putting the world to rights. Figuring they deserve each other, their captain makes the two misfit cops partners and sends them on a murder case that soon finds them visiting street-savvy informant Huggy Bear (Snoop Dogg), enlisting the help of two very obliging cheerleaders and tracking down Vince Vaughn's distinctly dodgy businessman.

And the good news is that after a slighty rocky start where the jokes only extend to Stiller's bad perm and the creases in his jeans, this TV spin-off turns out to be great fun. "Road Trip" director Todd Phillips starts to string together the increasingly hilarious set-pieces with style - Starsky's cocaine-fuelled dance-off is a highlight - while there's surprisingly good comic support from Snoop Dog as the brilliantly kitted out Huggy Bear and Will Ferrell as a kinky prisoner. But it's really Stiller and Wilson's party in this their sixth film together, as their effortless rapport carries the film up and over its enormous plot holes. Supremely silly and surprisingly sweet, this is, for once, a 70s spin-off to catch.