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Starsky & Hutch

EMAILPRINTWarner Bros.

Starsky & Hutch reviews
55
6.2 User Score:

Mixed or average reviews

Based on 40 critic reviews
How did we calculate this?

Based on 46 votes
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Movie Info

Genre(s): Action  |  Comedy  |  Crime

Written by: John O'Brien, Todd Phillips,
Scot Armstrong,
Stevie Long (story), John O'Brien (story),
and William Blinn (characters)

Directed by: Todd Phillips

Release Date:
Theatrical: March 5, 2004
DVD: July 20, 2004

Running Time: 97 minutes, Color

Origin: USA

Summary

RATING: PG-13 for drug content, sexual situations, partial nudity, language and some violence

Starring Ben Stiller, Owen Wilson, Vince Vaughn, Juliette Lewis, Snoop Dogg, Chris Penn, Terry Crews, and Richard Edson

Ben Stiller and Owen Wilson star as the buddy-cop team of Starsky and Hutch from the wildly popular 70's television drama.

What The Critics Said

All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...

80

Empire Colin Kennedy

Goofy and easygoing, Starsky & Hutch is not exactly politically correct, but you'd be hard pushed to find a single mean frame.

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75

Rolling Stone Peter Travers

Were detective Dave Starsky (Paul Michael Glaser) and his partner, Ken Hutchinson (David Soul), hot for each other when they started working undercover in Bay City?... you can watch Starsky and Hutch on the big screen and see subtext stiffen into hard and hilarious evidence.

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75

ReelViews James Berardinelli

The key to the film's success is that it uses the burned out premise as the springboard for a comedy, not an action flick.

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75

New York Daily News Jack Mathews

The new buddy comedy movie that assumes the names of the series' characters and features the same hot-to-trot, tomato-red and shocking-white 1974 Ford Gran Torino is more fun than a Heidi Fleiss open house.

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75

Chicago Sun-Times Roger Ebert

A surprisingly funny movie, the best of the 1970s recycling jobs, with one laugh ("Are you OK, little pony?") almost as funny as the moment in "Dumb and Dumber" when the kid figured out his parakeet's head was Scotch-taped on.

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75

USA Today Mike Clark

There may be no crying need for this movie, but we could use the laughs.

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75

Portland Oregonian Marc Mohan

What this alteration says about societal trends of the past three decades is open to debate, but the change is a tiny hint that earnest fidelity to the source was not a top priority.

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75

San Francisco Chronicle Mick LaSalle

Funny throughout, but with a handful of really hilarious moments.

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75

Baltimore Sun Michael Sragow

A campy riot of retro cool, a warm and fuzzy ode to the '70s buddy cops.

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70

Washington Post Ann Hornaday

A perfect example of a really good not-great movie, the kind that would be classified as a guilty pleasure were it not executed with guilt-free honesty and good nature.

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70

Chicago Reader J.R. Jones

Stiller and Wilson are still hilarious as the supercool detectives -- there hasn't been a comedy duo this good since John Belushi and Dan Aykroyd.

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70

The New York Times A.O. Scott

The movie's advertising tagline ("Starsky & Hutch — they're the Man") needs to be amended. The film belongs, completely and utterly, to Snoop Dogg.

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70

The Onion (A.V. Club) Nathan Rabin

A textbook example of how a remade '70s show can feel like an enjoyable lark rather than cultural recycling run amok.

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67

Entertainment Weekly Owen Gleiberman

To turn fondly remembered TV trash into a movie that knows it's cruddy -- and that isn't, therefore, quite as cruddy as it might have been -- takes a perverse pinch of talent, if not style.

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67

Austin Chronicle Marc Savlov

The highlight of this satirical remake of ABC's mid-Seventies buddy-cop anomaly is named, unsurprisingly, Will Ferrell.

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63

Premiere Kelly Borgeson

Vince Vaughn is terrific as the baddie.

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63

The Globe and Mail (Toronto) Liam Lacey

There's a surprising sweetness in the bond between the two cops. The gay subtext of the partnership is used for humour but it's never sniggering or mean.

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63

New York Post Jonathan Foreman

Its abundant laughs are heavily reliant on the chemistry of stars Ben Stiller and Owen Wilson - who show once again that they're as fine a comic team as Hollywood has ever produced.

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63

Boston Globe Ty Burr

Stealing the movie, however, is rapper Snoop Dogg as Huggy Bear, the pimp/informant originally portrayed by Antonio Fargas on the TV show.

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63

Chicago Tribune Mark Caro

This is a profoundly unambitious movie, a '70s cop show spoof that aims to provoke a few giggles, and that's about it.

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63

Philadelphia Inquirer Carrie Rickey

The second-best film parody (after The Brady Bunch Movie) of a '70s TV phenom that unaccountably looks better the further you get from it.

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60

Wall Street Journal Joe Morgenstern

What's wrong with this picture? Nothing, as long as you don't expect more than a tossed-off goof.

60

The Hollywood Reporter Michael Rechtshaffen

Cruises along agreeably on the easy chemistry between Ben Stiller and Owen Wilson, who step in where Paul Michael Glaser and David Soul left off.

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60

Washington Post Michael O'Sullivan

What modest pleasure the film affords is largely thanks to the charisma of its genial stars.

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60

Village Voice Dennis Lim

S&H's chief pleasure is the spontaneous, sometimes quite touching rapport between the two stars.

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58

Seattle Post-Intelligencer William Arnold

Wilson's shtick actually works better with Stiller than it did with either of his former partners, Jackie Chan and Eddie Murphy.

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50

Christian Science Monitor David Sterritt

The title characters are wittily crafted by Messrs. Stiller and Wilson, and Snoop Dogg is a riot as Huggy Bear.

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50

Charlotte Observer Lawrence Toppman

Whether or not you think Starsky & Hutch is funny -- and I did, though intermittently and in spasms -- you have to admire it for being the first openly gay cop-buddy comedy from a big studio.

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50

Time Richard Schickel

Starsky & Hutch has moments of hilarity a little greater than you might expect of a movie that is just out for a lazy good time.

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50

Dallas Observer Robert Wilonsky

Starsky & Hutch is less homage to an old cop show than a tribute to the people who made the movie--a circle pat on the back. And no obvious joke goes untouched.

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50

Salon.com Stephanie Zacharek

Even as a nostalgia ride, Starsky & Hutch poops out before it ever gets going.

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50

TV Guide Maitland McDonagh

Stiller's performance throws the whole enterprise out of whack -- he's a grotesque mass of tics, twitches and swaggering macho shoulder action.

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50

Slate David Edelstein

There are no comic highs, as in a Mike Myers parody, but no action highs, either.

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50

Variety Brian Lowry

Blessed with sporadic moments of cheeky fun, isn't painful but seldom advances beyond costumes and hairstyling in terms of creativity.

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40

Newsweek Devin Gordon

There are no ideas, just repartee. Snoop Dogg, as a superfly snitch, and Vince Vaughn, as a drug lord, are wasted in obvious supporting roles. It's harmless fun--and too lazy to be more.

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40

Los Angeles Times Manohla Dargis

Because no one involved with Starsky & Hutch actually seems to care about the movie, all Wilson can do is idle in neutral while Stiller frantically shifts gears, looking for an excuse to split.

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30

New York Magazine Peter Rainer

Ends with a bunch of goofy outtakes--which are as dismal as the rest of the movie. How do you decide what to leave out when there's nothing worth keeping in?

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30

LA Weekly Scott Foundas

This depressingly uninspired action-comedy (based on the 1975–79 TV series) is Hollywood’s latest McMovie -- name-brand recognition as raison d’être or, if you will, creative bankruptcy on a very large scale.

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25

Miami Herald Rene Rodriguez

The scattershot nature of the script, which feels as if it had been made up on the spot, leaves the actors looking like they're enjoying some private joke not shared with the audience. Self-indulgent does not even begin to describe it.

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10

Film Threat Eric Campos

This tired old pile of garbage will hopefully be chased out of town soon.

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What Our Users Said

The average user rating for this movie is 6.2 (out of 10) based on 46 User Votes

Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.

Jerri B. gave it a7:
I believe this i a good film as it manages to bring out the hummor in all situations that can relate to the viewer on many levels no matter what the age group.

Mac M. gave it a 2:
Inspired casting with Snoop Dogg but everything about this movie is forgettable and poorly executed. And I regard myself a fan of the Stiller/Wilson tag-team! I totally fell asleep.

Martin L gave it a 10:
Really Great Movie!

Kristine M. gave it an 8:
If anyone was around in the 70's they would of enjoyed this movie i like the new Starsky and Hutch their young breath of fresh air that should be given the chance to do their thing. I'm 52 I think there great I would like to see them do a couple of more of the S&H movies with just a little bit more action then they would win over the public get Richard Donner to direct and produce. Please bring them back it was great to think back love ya Owen and Ben your the greatest and Huggy.

Paul W. gave it a 2:
Don't bother watching this rubbish....I actually started to surf the net about two thirds through as it was so bad. I love the tv series and wish they just left the classic series alone. The only bright spots in the film are the legend that is Fred Williamson as the captain and Snoop dog who plays a great Huggy Bear so for that the films gets two out of 10.

Mark B. gave it a 4:
Unimaginative, half-hearted, would-be spoof that doesn't really try to re-enact the series (admittedly a forgettable one to begin with) but simply allows Wilson and Stiller to recycle their tired old paces as The Stoner Dude and The Uptight Neurotic. The only performances that work are Frec Williamson's and Will Farrell's; again, the Old School Elf adds energy and danger to a project sorely lacking in both. The only gag that halfway scores is a nasty one reminiscent of a famous bit in Animal House, except in that classic the human victim was a sadistic ROTC instructor and here it's a sweet, innocent little girl. The central premise is as problematic as the execution: I'm as anxious to see Farrell's Anchorman as anyone, but isn't it time we recognized the 1970s as a watershed decade in which everything from the women's movement to the US military, to the relationship between the White House and the press to the reinvention of the Hollywood studio system was permanently and irrevocably altered in ways that are still affecting us---and not just as an endless source of lame disco-ball jokes? All in all, after the utterly routine SWAT, the flashy-but-trashy Charlie's Angels movies and this, perhaps it's time we declared a moratorium on movie adaptations of Aaaron Spelling-produced TV shows...unless, of course, someone wants to redo Dynasty and let Heather Locklear pick up where she left off!

Cameron S. gave it a 7:
[***SPOILERS***] I’ve never seen an episode of the 70’s television series ‘Starsky & Hutch’. After seeing this film, I think I would rather enjoy it. Todd Phillips last two films were Road Trip and Old School. I liked the former and was lukewarm about the latter. In Starksy and Hutch, Todd Phillips has expertly crafted a brilliant ode to the seventies buddy cop genre. Right from the beginning, you get a perfect 70’s vibe. The bass-driven soundtrack, the character ‘zoom n’ pause’, the sunglasses, the hair, and beginning the movie with a foot chase. The film takes place in Bay City, which must have been a less-homosexual San Francisco permanently stuck in the 1970’s. San Francisco locals would loathe the outfits and the hairstyles of our characters. The plot involves Reese Feldman, a Jewish family man smuggling cocaine into the country. The coke is chemically altered so that drug dogs can’t detect it. There is a marvelously wonderful scene where Starsky and Hutch are mimes at his daughters bat mitzvah. Then there is Snoop Dog as Huggy Bear, who steals every scene he’s in with his intellectual thug guards. I’ve generally liked the pairing of Ben Stiller and Owen Wilson; the funny Jew and the funny Aryan. They are especially funny in this film, one extremely genius moment is when Ben Stiller seems to be channeling his father as an oil-tycoon reminiscent to Johnny Two-Times. The two have never paired so well. This is always true about Wilson; he was the brightest part of Shanghai Noon, Shanghai Knights, I Spy, and other buddy movies. He has a keen sense of comic delivery. While Stiller has never awed me, he is often funny in movies of absurdity (Zoolander) or smart screwball comedies. (There’s Something About Mary) but often lame in romantic-charged films (Along Came Polly), here he is wonderfully inspired, as the two spark tons of laughs. Starsky and Hutch are complete opposites. Starsky is a hard-worker, always wanting to get the job done. He starts work precisely at 8 a.m. and has a wig man for when he goes undercover. Hutch on the left hand had been undercover for quite some time with a gang who had robbed seven bookies in six months and none of the money had been turned in. Hutch is kind of disgraceful and laid-back. This film could have had a lot more clichés than it actually does. Many times the filmmakers are sidestepping, like how Starsky isn’t as good a cop as his mother was. One great example of where a cliché is dodged: (SPOILER AHEAD) near the climax when the Gran Turino misses its landing spot. Recent seventies TV show adaptations have been pretty weak. I hate the Charlie’s Angels films and SWAT fell short for me. But Starsky & Hutch gets it right; it is both substantially stylistic and stylishly substantial.

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