Cop
Out
It's like Beverly Hills Cop meets Die Hard, except we
like those
movies.
Bruce Willis and Tracy Morgan star as Jimmy and Paul - two longtime
detectives who have a bad reputation. After screwing up a sting
operation, the partners are suspended for 30 days without pay, which
compels Jimmy to sell a valuable baseball card he loves in order to pay
for his daughter's elaborate wedding.
Of course, during the sale, Jimmy is robbed, and he decides to find the
criminal, and Paul is along to help, which leads to more trouble than
the two ever could have imagined.
Can Jimmy and Paul find the baseball card thieves?
What else will they stumble across in the process?
Cop Out
is a failure because director Kevin Smith can't figure out what the
movie is supposed to be. On the one hand, he is trying to make it a
parody of buddy cop movies complete with 80's-style music, villains who
are outrageously cliché (and often cross the line into
stereotype) and a bunch of routine, overdone situations. However, Smith
doesn't take Cop Out
far enough to be a parody, so it comes off as a lame comedy.
Everything needs to be more outrageous. Willis needs to be more stiff,
like Jack Webb in Dragnet
or Leslie Nielsen in The Naked
Gun. Morgan is silly and goofy,
but he can be even sillier. No one involved seems committed to the
work, so it doesn't hit your funny bone on a consistent basis.
On the other hand, Smith has Cop
Out trying to come off as just a
goofy movie, but it's too serious and going for drama at times, as if
Smith suddenly wants this to be a straight action movie. The crime
scenes truly are dangerous and nothing to laugh at as people get shot
and killed. Instead of a consistent tone, Smith is all over the place.
He isn't helped by the script.
Writers Robb Cullen and Mark Cullen provide a jumbled plot and script
only enhanced by Willis and Morgan bringing their experience and sense
of humor to the proceedings. Morgan tries everything he possibly can to
make us laugh, succeeding about 50% of the time. Then, Willis shows off
his comedic ability with a few good deadpan remarks and an extreme
reaction to some of the challenges the two partners face. Money
invested in their salaries was well spent, but couldn't someone work on
the script a bit more?
Cop Out
was a doomed movie from the start.
Cop
Out is rated R for pervasive language including sexual references,
violence and brief sexuality.
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