Movies Reviews

Cop Out - Movie Review

By Ron Wilkinson Feb 26, 2010, 17:35 GMT

Two longtime NYPD partners on the trail of a stolen, rare, mint-condition baseball card find themselves up against a merciless, memorabilia-obsessed gangster.  Jimmy (Bruce Willis) is the veteran detective whose missing collectible is his only hope to pay for his daughter’s upcoming wedding, and Paul (Tracy Morgan) is his “partner-against-crime” whose preoccupation with his wife’s alleged infidelity makes it hard for him to keep his eye on the ball.  ...more

Who needs a plot with a herd of stand-up comics and a bushel of wisecracks?

It’s only a buddy cop flick and it’s still early in the year but director Kevin Smith’s hilarious “Cop Out” is without question the funniest thing to hit the screen so far in 2010. At a time when America really needs a funny film Robb and Mark Cullen have turned out a flick that is nothing but. If you want a plot, go somewhere else. If you want realistic action, stay home. If you want redeeming social value, go to church. If you are badly in need of a good laugh and not too proud to watch 107 minutes of TV brand humor, check out this film immediately. You won’t be sorry.

As for being a film, this film isn’t one. It is a collection of very good stand-up comics spouting off some very good comic dialog by Boston University alum Mark and his brother Robb (who describes himself as a high-functioning moron with a slight gambling problem). Bruce Willis is the straight man.

Kevin Smith is a director with a unique style; a comic book writer who landed in Hollywood and produces just enough cult hits to stay employed while putting out some of the best flops on record. He says the biggest influence he drew from in making “Cop Out” is Abbott and Costello. Lucky for him he had the Cullen brothers to write the script or the A & B influence would never have made it out of the gate.

As it is this script sparkles from beginning to end with some of the hippest and most outlandish trash talk ever collected in one place at one time. Bruce Willis plays Jimmy, Tracy Morgan plays Paul, and the two form an updated “Car 54 Where Are You?” cop-clown duo. The best thing about this film is that it doesn’t try to be a martial arts display like John Travolta’s recent “From Paris with Love.” There are a few shooting scenes but the unabashed center of attention is pure and simple cornball humor.

Willis’ bad-cop Jimmy has to melt down from tough guy to confused father and he pulls it off. The typical set-up has Jimmy starting out on top with a seemingly unshakable super-tough-guy persona and Paul as the idiot sidekick. Two minutes later Paul is running rings around Jimmy who is sorry he ever started the conversation. Actually the Abbott and Costello comparison might not be as close as Burns and Allen, where the suave and sophisticated George Burns is reduced to quivering mush by the pretzel logic of Gracie Allen.

What makes this film great is the talent doesn’t end with the incredible Willis and Tracy; it keeps getting better. Seann William Scott plays light-footed Dave the second story man who steals Jimmy’s baseball card to set the whole plot in motion. Finally apprehended, Dave launches one of the most profound attacks of nuclear weapons grade moron-rap ever filmed on the silver screen. This is where Abbott and Costello come into play. That particular three way conversation is so perfectly timed and Scott’s and Willis’ facial expressions so perfectly echo the reverberating confusion that Tracy is able to smash the home run by being driven to perfect distraction.

In terms of heaviest laughs per minute the prize goes to Susie Essman playing housewife Laura who surprises Jimmy and Paul when they are about to collar Dave as he is robbing her house. They tell her they are the police and she should get away because there’s a burglar inside and they are going in after him. At which point she launches into one of the best displays of mad-mother syndrome that you have ever seen from any mother. Her 10-year-old son is with her and he is funny, too, without even doing anything.

Such is the genius of good writing helped out by a little over-the-top acting.

Kevin Pollak and Adam Brody as brown-nosing and overtly jealous cop team Hunsaker and Mangold who are always playing second fiddle to the Keystone Kops. Juan Carlos Hernández as a pretty tough drug gangster with a soft spot for baseball nostalgia and a unique way of making his victims talk.

The music sound track is totally up to speed with the wisecracking slapstick comedy. It keeps things rocking with hits by Harold Faltermeyer, the man who penned the Grammy award-winning “Axel F” for Eddie Murphy’s “Beverly Hills Cop” and went on to a Golden Globe nomination for his score to “Top Gun.”

Kevin Smith reunites with director of photography David Klein from the smash hits “Clerks,” “Clerks II” and Chasing Amy.” The planets aligned for Kevin Smith on this one.

Directed by: Kevin Smith
Written by: Robb and Mark Cullen

Release: February 26, 2010
MPAA: Rated R for pervasive language including sexual references, violence and brief sexuality
Runtime: 107 minutes
Country: USA
Language: English
Color: Color