Starsky & Hutch

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

USA Today Mike Clark

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

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.

San Francisco Chronicle Mick LaSalle

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

Baltimore Sun Michael Sragow

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Austin Chronicle Marc Savlov

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

Premiere Kelly Borgeson

Vince Vaughn is terrific as the baddie.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Washington Post Michael O'Sullivan

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

Village Voice Dennis Lim

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Salon.com Stephanie Zacharek

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

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.

Slate David Edelstein

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

Variety Brian Lowry

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

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.

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.

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?

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.

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.

Film Threat Eric Campos

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