Starsky and Hutch MPAA Rating: PG-13 Entertainment: +3 Content: -2 1/2

Match up two cops one honest and naive and the other a smart-aleck, rule-breaker and you get Starsky and Hutch, the odd couple of the 70s, transported from television to your neighborhood theater in this action comedy. And with them come the retro styles, big hairdos and disco music. David Starsky (Ben Stiller), with his spiffy red and white Ford Torino and by-the-book, humorless style, is the brunt of the Bay City Police Departments jokes. Ken Hutch Hutchinson (Owen Wilson) hangs out with lowlifes and looks for ways to pocket extra cash. His best friend is Huggy Bear (Snoop Dogg), a flamboyant police informant who has an entourage of bodyguards, drug dealers and prostitutes. The two undercover cops are teamed up by the police chief because nobody wants to be a partner to either of them. They stumble into a murder investigation that points to drug lord Reese Feldman (Vince Vaughn), and the two learn to adapt to each other as they face enemies in high places.

Action scenes include wild car chases, explosions, shootings and a few fisticuffs, but theres no gore, although a drug lord shoots a gang member point blank. The films greatest crime is its attempt to portray as comical things that arent funny: a young boy throwing kitchen knives at police and stabbing them in the back and legs, suggestive moves by Starsky turning on a perverted inmate (Will Ferrell), and a lighthearted and humorous use of drugs. In one scene, Starsky mistakenly puts cocaine into his coffee, causing him to pass out while trying to impress two oversexed cheerleaders (Carmen Electra and Amy Smart). Hutch takes over by kissing both girls, and group sex is implied. In a locker-room scene, a girl strips off all of her clothes in front of the cops showing side-breast nudity. There is also same-sex kissing and much crude humor, including many obscenities and several profanities. Drugs, sex and foul language are used to entertain, causing Starsky and Hutch to rank poorly with Preview.

Preview Reviewer: Mary Draughon
Distributor: Warner Brothers