Stuck in the 70s

I never watched Starsky & Hutch when it was on TV, so I don't know why I queued up Starsky & Hutch, the Ben Stiller/Owen Wilson movie. But it was so good it makes me wish I had seen the tv show.

Ben Stiller is by-the-book cop Starsky. Owen Wilson is his anything-goes partner. Their captain, Fred Williamson, stuck them together for spite. (Yes, that Fred Williamson, from Warrior of the Lost World - among other stuff.) Starsky has a real stick up his butt, but he does drive a hot Gran Torino. Wilson has some ethics issues, but he has a great source on the street: Huggy Bear, played by Snoop Dogg.

Huggy is pretty much the best part of the movie - Snoop plays him as utterly cool, but also deep. He runs his neighborhood like an independent country, say Liechtenstein, as established by the Treaty of Ghent. His gang is tough but fair and always open to a philosophical discussion.

Their enemy is Vince Vaughan, who makes a very 70's coke dealer. He is assisted by an uncredited and very sick Will Ferrel.

Wilson gets to do a David Soul impression. Stiller goes undercover in a grey wig with sideburns as a dentist from Queens named Finkle. He even has his own catchphrase, "Do it, do it." There is a disco dance-off, a bat mitzvah with mimes, and a threesome with 2 cheerleaders. There is a cameo with the original S&H, looking as bad as Bones and Scotty in the last Star Trek movies.

And in honor of Starsky's Gran Torino, we've queued up Gran Torino.