The buddy cop movie never really went away. It just got harder to recognize. The genre may have reached its peak during the 1980s and ’90s with movies like 48 Hrs., Lethal Weapon, Bad Boys, Rush Hour, and Tango & Cash, but Hollywood has continued producing great mismatched-partner movies well into the 21st century.
And yes, I said mismatched-partner movies. Because while having two cops is certainly part of the traditional formula, the best buddy cop movies have always been about something more important: putting two completely different people together, giving them a problem to solve, and watching them argue, fail, learn to trust each other, and eventually become a team. That’s why this list includes a couple of private investigators alongside actual police officers. If the chemistry is right, the badges are optional.
So, after revisiting some of the best examples of the genre from the past 25 years, here are my picks for the five best buddy cop movies since 2000. And honestly, I think a few of these deserve to be mentioned alongside the classics from the golden age.
This movie follows two P.I.s called Healy and March who are very reluctantly paired together on a case to find a missing child and figure out who killed North Hollywood’s most tragic adult-movie star. The film stars Russell Crowe and Ryan Gosling as Jackson Healy and Holland March, respectively, and seeing as it was written and directed by the same guy who made Lethal Weapon (another fantastic movie in the subgenre), AND he made another great buddy cop movie that we’ll be talking about later, this movie clearly was set up to impress fans of these kinds of movies.
What makes this a great buddy cop romp is the hilarious and authentic-feeling character dynamic between these two P.I.s. Holland is a desperate hustler whose personal life is a complete mess. He has a daughter who doesn’t respect him, an ex who doesn’t love him, and a clientele that can barely afford to pay him. Holland March is kind of a loser. But his redeeming qualities are that he’s a kind person with morals and big dreams who is just trying his best.
When he crosses paths with Jackson Healy, the two men… don’t click. Healy is a hard-boiled detective type who seems more like an enforcer than an investigator. He’s cold, he keeps to himself, and he is much more aggressive and intimidating than Gosling’s Holland March. Where March will try to be charming and slick, Healy will break your nose and threaten you.
Different methods aside, they share the same goal: find the kid, solve the murder, stay alive. The scenes that demonstrate their dynamic the best are probably the first scene where they meet, the bathroom stall scene, and the scene where they have to escape the club. These three scenes show the evolution of their relationship throughout the movie, and of course, by the end they’re homies. We love that.
What Shane Black understands about these movies is that the most important thing to capture is the growth of the characters individually that ultimately changes their dynamic together. Holland learns to toughen up and take things a little more seriously; this case brings that out of him. Healy learns that you get further faster with collaboration and cooperation. This makes both men more tolerant of each other.
That is what makes the buddy cop dynamic work in these films. They all share the same bones in this specific way, and it works oh-so-well in this movie. Honestly, this might be in my top five buddy cop flicks ever. Shane Black just gets it.
Speaking of Shane Black, have any of you seen his underrated masterpiece Kiss Kiss Bang Bang? Hear me out on this one: Robert Downey Jr., Val Kilmer, a con man poses as an actor and goes to L.A. to shadow a private eye as research for a film role, and it all goes utterly to shit.
If you’re not on board already, let’s talk about why it’s one of the best movies this genre has to offer.
Before RDJ was making his career comeback in 2008 with Iron Man, he was playing Harry Lockhart in this movie. Harry is a petty thief with low ambition until he finds himself with an opportunity to pretend to be an actor who is up for the role of a private investigator in a major motion picture. In order to land the gig, he gets sent to L.A., where he’s partnered up with a real-life P.I. who is used to dealing with a better class of criminals.
That P.I. is gay. No, literally. His name is Gay Perry, played by the late and always great Val Kilmer. And yeah, he’s also, like, actually gay, which makes for a very interesting character in the film.
The duo investigate a mysterious murder with the help of Harry’s childhood friend Harmony, who is also an actor. She’s played by Michelle Monaghan, and she’s wonderful in this movie. This movie has a similar dynamic between the leads as The Nice Guys, but the characters themselves are very different. Harry is kind of dumb, definitely unprepared and out of his depth, whereas Gay is an absolute pro.
These guys don’t hit it off (of course), but as always, that changes throughout the film. This one definitely has a meaner tone than The Nice Guys, and it’s much less colorful and vibrant and more cold and grimy. The movie is considered a dark comedy, but there are elements of a classic psychological thriller that lace the runtime and deliver a vibe that is simply addicting.
This is one of those movies that leaves you wanting more, and if you haven’t seen it, it’s worth it for the characters and performances alone. Also, after his comeback, RDJ would team up with Jude Law as Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson in the Guy Ritchie movies, which are kind of, sort of buddy cop movies as well, and they’re great!
Now, in the tradition of actual cops who become buddies, we can look at 2010’s action comedy The Other Guys, starring Mark Wahlberg and Will Ferrell. You have definitely seen this movie, and it stands as maybe the funniest buddy cop comedy of the last 20 years.
This movie came out at a time when Will Ferrell was unstoppable as a comedic presence in cinema. Anchorman, Talladega Nights, and Step Brothers had proven him to be one of the most bankable box office funny guys, and this movie is no different. It also was the first time he was paired with Mark Wahlberg, who would go on to become a great tough-guy foil to Ferrell in movies like Daddy’s Home.
Two NYC detectives with vastly different styles are partnered up to break up a corrupt official’s criminal organization. Wahlberg plays Hoitz, a gritty street-beat detective who doesn’t take shit from anyone. He’s rude, he rides solo, and he doesn’t give a fuck about the dress code.
To counter that, Ferrell plays Detective Gamble, a desk jockey who prefers to do paperwork and sit comfortably behind his desk. Hell, he doesn’t even really know how to use his gun. The thing that makes this movie stand out is the emphasis on the comedy. The characters cannot be taken seriously, as they both kinda suck at their jobs.
A lot of their dynamic is just Hoitz being surprised by Gamble’s lack of awareness and seemingly endless luck. The scene where it’s revealed that Gamble’s wife is the smoking-hot Eva Mendes and he doesn’t appreciate her at all, despite her being completely out of his league, is truly one of the most memorable moments in the genre of buddy cop movies. HE CALLS HER “PLAIN”!
I think what really evolves the dynamic of the characters in this movie is the sort of “peeling back the layers” element, where the more they learn about each other, the more they respect each other. For example, we learn that Hoitz is really good at ballet, which humanizes this asshole character in a fun way.
On the other side of that coin, we learn that the gentle Detective Gamble used to be a full-on pimp who ran an escort service in college. This shows us a tougher side of the character that he fully taps into when asking Michael Keaton to give him his gun…
Gator needs his gat, you punk bitch.
Side note: speaking of Keaton in this movie… wow. If you ever forgot that this man got his start as a comedic actor, this movie will remind you why he’s such a damn legend. This movie rules, and it’s definitely an iconic buddy cop comedy that proves the genre is alive and well.
And I know it’s cheesy, but I need to shout out how much I personally enjoy the Starsky & Hutch movie starring one of the best on-screen comedy duos, Ben Stiller and Owen Wilson.
They’re also joined by Vince Vaughn, Jason Bateman, Snoop Dogg, and even Terry Crews, so there’s no doubt in my mind that anyone who watches this movie will laugh out loud at least once.
I wouldn’t call this one the definitive example of the genre, but I would consider it worth talking about for the cast and scope of the movie alone. This is at least… three times better than the CHiPs movie with Michael Peña and Dax Shepard.
Now, to talk about a movie that truly captures the reason we love this genre, let’s talk about Simon Pegg and Nick Frost in Hot Fuzz.
Pegg plays Angel, an ambitious and overachieving police officer who’s been transferred from London to a tiny town called Sandford. His new partner, Butterman, is not a typical cop either, but to the opposite degree. He’s a lazy, unbothered patrolman who isn’t nearly as driven by success as Angel. But when a couple of local actors turn up dead, the two must work together to unravel the mystery.
Look, we’ve all seen this movie, yeah? So you’ll know what I mean when I say that THIS movie is one of the best buddy cop films ever made. Simon Pegg’s cocky, pompous wit contrasts against Frost’s bumbling himbo police officer so well that you can’t help but adore both characters despite wanting to cringe at them nearly the entire time.
I love seeing Simon Pegg as a badass, and I think there should be more roles for him like this. After the massive success of Shaun of the Dead, these guys could have done anything. And I’m glad it was this, as this is probably my favorite film in the Cornetto trilogy.
The mystery of this movie is compelling as well and smartly written to be a real-estate scam as well as a murder case, and it keeps us guessing while laughing our asses off at the antics of our two leads. Any scene simply showing us these two guys in a police cruiser having any kind of exchange is pure gold, and the lovable British charm of the whole thing makes it perfectly rewatchable and comforting.
Revisiting it for this video, I also noticed how there’s this subtle protectiveness that Angel has over Butterman despite kind of being annoyed with him for most of the film. There are all these little details that foreshadow the eventual friendship between these two.
I love it.
The buddy cop movie isn’t dead. It just doesn’t always look like the buddy-cop movies we grew up with.
Hot Fuzz, The Other Guys, Kiss Kiss Bang Bang, The Nice Guys, and Starsky & Hutch all prove that the basic formula still works. You don’t necessarily need two detectives, two police cars, or even two characters with badges. What you need is chemistry, conflict, comedy, and two people who are better together than they are apart.
That’s probably why the genre has survived for so long. The cars, clothes, weapons, jokes, and even the jobs of the characters can change, but there’s something timeless about watching two completely incompatible people get thrown together and slowly become partners. And if Hollywood wants to keep making them, I’m certainly not going to complain.
But what did I miss? What’s your favorite buddy cop movie since 2000? Let us know in the comments.