Let's get one thing straight, this big screen remake of the popular 70's TV show is frankly more of a comedic homage than a accurate silver screen translation. Ben Stiller and Owen Wilson both seem to lavish in the period attire and as a result the film does ooze of 70's style, as well as some great music, set pieces and dialogue to boot. Sadly though, this just isn't enough to make the new 'Starsky & Hutch' anything more than 90 minutes of pure silliness. Comedy layering in a movie is one thing, but saturating the plot with gag after gag after gag just ends up harming the film and not to mention the idea it was originally born from. The ending of the movie is the focal point of my criticism, an ending that lets the two lead characters fail to personally catch the bad guy they've been trying to nail. This makes the two lead characters seem completely inept and useless. If the movie however had been brought to closure with a slick "it's time to get down to business, no time for jokes now" sort of attitude, the comedic shenanigans of the rest of the film would have gained more credibility and the film could have ended on a much more in tune high. Instead the ending only serves to butcher all that credibility by taking one step to many in the arena of pratfalls. So, as a result, you can't help but feel the modern day 'Starsky & Hutch' would be more suited to performing late night stand up on Channel 5 rather than trying to make a career out of upholding the law. The movie has all the right ingredients to make a successful modern day representation of the original show, but sadly, due to complete laziness by the story and script writers, the movie gets killed off by what could have been it's trump card if played correctly. You know what they say, too much of anything is a bad thing. Could have been so much better.

3/5