Starsky & Hutch (Widescreen Edition)

Owen Wilson, Ben Stiller, Snoop Dogg, Vince Vaughn. The uptight David Starsky meets his new partner-the laid back Ken Hutch" Hutchinson-as the famous duo take their very first case together in this hilarious prequel to the hit '70s series. 2003/color/100 min/NR/widescreen.

Ben Stiller and Owen Wilson--dark, wiry, and tense meets blond, lanky, and loose--make a solid comic team (and previously appeared together in Zoolander), but the funniest man in Starsky and Hutch is Vince Vaughn. Vaughn dives into his role as a sleazy drug dealer (who nonetheless buys a pony for his daughter's bat mitzvah) with the offhand zest that he brings to almost every role (from Swingers to Old School) and effortlessly steals every scene he's in. Vaughn has concocted a new and undetectable kind of cocaine, and only two cops who aren't afraid to break the rules--our titular pair--can catch him. But the plot isn't the point; mocking-yet-loving jabs at the '70s, including the homoerotic overtones of Starsky and Hutch's partnership, are what this movie is about. The satire is surprisingly mild but entertaining nonetheless, particularly when Vaughn or Snoop Dogg (as informant Huggy Bear) hold the screen. --Bret Fetzer