Are Owen Wilson and Ben Stiller surgically attached or something? Is it possible to watch a movie with one and not see the other? It's becoming harder and harder to do so. Not that it's necessarily a bad thing, as the two make a good comedic pair.

On the other hand, Owen Wilson seems to do the good comedic pair thing with everyone from Jackie Chan to Eddie Murphy. It's his lot in life to be one half of a comedic duo. In their latest Marvel Team-Up, Owen and Ben take on the roles of 70s superfly cops Starsky and Hutch.

Wilson plays the laid back, street smart Ken Hutchinson while Stiller portrays the super anal, by the book Dave Starsky. The two cops are a mismatched pair if there ever was one, and of course get made into partners by their gruff police captain (Fred Williamson) who sadly does not scream “You're off the case!” or “You're a loose cannon!”

Thankfully, we do get a “Give me your badges and your guns!” from him. That'll do pig, that'll do.

The bumbling duo stumble upon a dead body floating down a river and follow the clues to Reese Feldman (Vince Vaughn), a super rich owner of a convict rehabilitation program dealing a new type of undetectable cocaine on the side. The duo knows what he's really up to, but of course their own incompetence keeps them from taking the bad guy down.

Along the way they receive tips from Huggy Bear (Snoop Dogg), a smooth pimp whose such good friends with Hutch that he supplies him with street information in return for Hutch looking the other way on certain matters.

All the main actors turn in solid comedic performances, with even Snoop Dogg adding enough emotion to his voice to make it sound like he's actually acting while still retaining his laid back persona. Stiller and Wilson work well together, but that's really no surprise to anyone who has seen them together in other films.

Vince Vaughn is pretty familiar with playing the smarmy bad guy by this point and doesn't do much to differentiate this bad guy from any other. It's really not that necessary for such a film. The supporting cast does an excellent job as well.

Will Ferrell turns in one of the funniest performances of the film as Big Earl, a prison convict who has more than an unhealthy attraction to dragons. Amy Smart and Carmen Electra do a really good job of being hot and making out with each other.

Anyone who has seen a buddy cop film knows how formulaic the whole formula in. The two partners hate each other at first, gradually begin to like each other, something goes wrong in the case and they part ways, eventually making up and going on to defeat the bad guy.

Since it's using such a cookie cutter plot that everyone knows, the film can fill free to stick in lots of little gags here and there. A lot of the gags are a miss, but the few that hit (such as Ferrell) really work well.

Unlike 70s show remake movies like The Brady Bunch, Starsky and Hutch takes place in its resident timeframe and doesn't try to make its humor by poking relentless fun at the timeframe. There's no lame “Disco sucks!” jokes or “Oh my! Look at those clothes!” jokes. There's disco in the film, but disco was cool in the 70s and is presented as such in the film.

Most of the jokes come from making fun of the characters of Starsky and Hutch, which works alright since they're amusing enough. As for referencing the show it's based on, the film occasionally takes on the homoerotic tone some of the episodes of the show did. All the staples of the show are present, most importantly the outfits and that awesome car.

Fans of the show will also be slightly amused by the ending of the film which contains the proverbial handing off of the torch between the old and the new.

This film is far from original, but there are some clever moments in it and even though it's not funny all the time, whenever Wilson and Stiller are on the screen it's hard to be bored. There's something to be said about a 70s show movie that isn't reprehensible dreck (Charlie's Angles) or just makes fun of the decade it came from (The Brady Bunch).

Everything works out well in the end for the characters although there are a lot of forgotten plot points (but that type of thing doesn't matter much in a comedy) but it doesn't change the fact that the movie is amusing.

It's obvious that the cast and crew had a lot of fun working together and making the movie, and the same lightheartedness carries over to the film.

There are many worse movies you could spend your time and money on.

7 out of 10