In this bizarre film, Ferrell portrays Harold Crick, an IRS agent who begins to hear the voice of author Karen Eiffel ( Emma Thompson) narrate his life. Just months after the release of the smash hit, Talladega Nights: The Ballad Of Ricky Bobby, Ferrell gave audiences and more nuanced and toned down performance in the 2006 dark comedy Stranger Than Fiction. Gamble quickly turns the scenario around and explains (in great detail) the lengths he would go in order to defeat, kill, and eat the lion in one of the movie's most hilarious scenes.
Throughout much of the film, Ferrell's character, Detective Allen "Gator" Gamble, is portrayed as a mild-mannered and inexperienced forensic accountant who fumbles through procedural police duties when on the beat, but he drops all niceties when Wahlberg's Detective Terry Hoitz attempts to put him in check, comparing himself to a lion and Gamble to a tuna.
The Other Guys did quite well at the box office, bringing in over $170 million in ticket sales worldwide, but it’s one of the Will Ferrell movies that a lot of us forget about when looking over his memorable roles. Co-starring Mark Wahlberg tells the story of two New York City detectives from different backgrounds with different personalities who are forced to team up as they uncover a major conspiracy a financial bigwig. Will Ferrell continued his successful run of the box office hits with the 2010 buddy cop film The Other Guys. Those familiar with the scene will remember how unhinged and power-hungry Ferrell's character becomes at this moment, to the point where he degrades to one of the greatest football players and coaches of all time to point where he walks off the pitch and is never seen again (at least in the movie). The introduction of Pro Football Hall Of Famer Mike Ditka provides some of the funniest moments of the movie, the scene where Ferrell flips out on the former Chicago Bears and New Orleans Saints coach by referring to him as "Juice Box" being one of them. Much like other comedies of the era, Kicking & Screaming is a "paint by numbers" affair, but that doesn't take away from some classic Will Ferrell meltdowns that audiences have come to love and expect from the comedy superstar. Phil thought he would escape his father’s torment when he became an adult, but after his father treated his own grandson as a bench warmer on his youth soccer team, Phil coaches a team of his own, his son included. Ferrell plays Phil Weston, an unremarkable man dealing with the emotional and physical scars endured by his over-competitive father, Buck Weston ( Robert Duvall).