Starsky & Hutch is one of the better, for what it’s worth, TV-to-film adaptations as Ben Stiller and Owen Wilson were great together and the humor mostly landed and seeing this 15 years later was a lot of fun.
Starksy & Hutch
— Warner Archive Collection —
(2004)
Genre(s): Action, Comedy, Crime
Warner Bros. | PG13 – 101 min. – $21.99 | February 12, 2019
Date Published: 02/27/2019 | Author: The Movieman
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THE MOVIE – 3.75/5 |
| Plot Synopsis: High-strung workaholic David Starsky (BEN STILLER) and laidback ladies’ man Ken “Hutch” Hutchinson (OWEN WILSON) are detectives who patrol the crime-ridden streets of Bay City, Calif. When the murdered body of a drug dealer is found on a local beach, Starsky and Hutch follow the clues to repeat offender Reese Feldman (VINCE VAUGHN). But time and again the mismatched cops fail to apprehend the shifty Feldman, while under their noses he goes about planning his biggest trafficking operation yet.
Quick Hit Review: It’s been a good 15 years since I last watched the big screen adaptation Starsky & Hutch and honestly, it actually held up rather well. The comedy mostly landed thanks to a (at the time) star-studded cast led way by Ben Stiller and Owen Wilson who were great together, even if neither of them stretched their talents. Vince Vaughn was serviceable as the primary villain and Jason Bateman as his cohort was pretty funny, though again both he and Vaughn aren’t exactly doing that much different than we’ve seen in the past and since (although Vaughn showed his stuff in Brawl in Cell Block 99). Starsky & Hutch was co-scripted and directed by Todd Phillips who would go on to direct The Hangover Trilogy and Due Date before delving into some more serious material with War Dogs and the upcoming Joker flick, so seems to wanting to be a filmmaker to be taken more seriously. In any case, I actually think this was his best film (though I did like Road Trip and Old School), with homage to the old series with the directing style with zoom-ins and keeping a 70s aesthetic without being overbearing. All in all, Starksy & Hutch is one of the better TV-to-movie adaptations and while that may be faint praise, I truly did enjoy watching it again over a decade later with most of the humor actually landing and the pairing of Ben Stiller and Owen Wilson was great even if both of them are playing a version of characters they’ve played in past comedies. |
SPECIAL FEATURES – 3.25/5 |
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All of the features from the DVD were ported over and includes an Audio Commentary with Co-Writer/Director Todd Phillips, Last Look Making of Mockumentary (9:20) featurette, Fashion Fa Shizzle Wit Huggy Bizzle (2:42) with Snoop Dogg, some Deleted Scenes (6:31), a Gag Reel (5:00) and the Theatrical Trailer (2:26). |
VIDEO – 4.0/5, AUDIO – 3.5/5 |
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Starsky & Hutch comes to Blu-ray for the first time in North America (has been available overseas dating back to 2008) and been given a new 1080p transfer. The movie is presented in its original 2.40 widescreen aspect ratio and for the most part does look quite good. Detail is halfway decent while colors, albeit not brilliantly bright or anything, appear to be how it should look. There were no noticeable or apparent instances of artifacting, aliasing or other flaws. The disc comes with a rather soft DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 track which outputs clear dialogue rather well but the action elements lacked very much depth and even the LFE track rarely turned on. This is not at all a bad lossless track, just on the underwhelming side of things. |
OVERALL – 3.5/5 |
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Overall, Starsky & Hutch is one of the better, for what it’s worth, TV-to-film adaptations as Ben Stiller and Owen Wilson were great together and the humor mostly landed and seeing this 15 years later was a lot of fun. This Blu-ray release from Warner’s Archive Collection has good video and adequate audio to go along with the bonus material ported over from the DVD release. |
Check out some more 1080p screen caps by going to page 2. Please note, these do contain spoilers.