Movies Reviews

Cop Out - Movie Review 2

By Anne Brodie Feb 26, 2010, 17:33 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

Cop Out indeed.  This ‘comedy’ is a spectacular misfire from the Auteur from Jersey in his all-new role as director-for-hire.  Smith has written, produced, and directed nine of his own films, which are individualistic, iconic, and pioneering, laying the foundation for Judd Apatow and the stoner comedy genre. 

But put in charge of someone else’s script and vision, Smith has sputtered badly.  You get the feeling his heart just isn’t in Cop Out and that he is merely coasting to a paycheque.  Smith edited the film no doubt to run damage control, but he appears to have lost interest totally by then.

The film’s been dogged by controversy since its inception, most recently in the late change of the title from A Couple of Dicks.  The failure of Smith’s Zach and Miri Make a Porno taught him an invaluable lesson, although he blames the Weinsteins for allowing him to keep the name.  Its clear Smith is uncomfortable or uninvested in Cop Out, and while he speaks of the fun they had on set and how funny Tracy Morgan is, all that improvisation seems to have been a poor substitute for a concise, lean vision.
Bruce Willis is no doubt kicking himself for agreeing to star in this low rent cop buddy comedy caper.  He basically provides a foil for Morgan’s constant mugging, although he brings his always convincing tenderness to the father part.  Morgan seems to strain to bring funny to game, and while he is successful at times, eventually it’s a strain on us and a smokescreen to cover the script’s inadequacies.

Willis and Morgan are police partners, and rebels against the system like every cinematic police pairing before them - Danny Glover and Mel Gibson, Denzel Washington and Ethan Hawke, John Hartnett and Harrison Ford, the Miami Vice guys, and ad infintium.  Some pairings are funny and memorable, some are tough and fascinating, some are stylish, but this pair is none of the above.  This pair is hostage to Smith’s lack of clarity.

The cops are after a Mexican drug dealer who has Willis’ valuable baseball trading card he’s selling to pay for his daughter’s wedding.  He’s in a contest with her loathsome new stepfather to see who will cover her expensive dream wedding.  They meet spunky, drug addled pals along the way, fouled mouthed housewives who pack heat and gangster children who also pack heat.  They discover a woman, still alive after two days in their car trunk who has nary a hair or a lipstick out of place and enough energy to attack the gangsters who will gladly attack her right back. 

None of this actually matters, though as there is no compelling story.  Instead, the film is a frame on which to hang Willis and Morgan’s banter.  The entire setup collapses.  The soundtrack is extremely wonky and smells of someone’s misguided nostalgia for sixties TV contest shows.  The choice is positively befuddling and exceedingly irritating to ears in this particular century.  And gunfire, gunfire and more gunfire, the burned out director’s best friend.

Rashida Jones and Michelle Trachtenberg were somehow roped into appearing as Morgan’s wife, in an inane storyline that’s as entertaining as a toothache and Willis’ daughter, a greedy little vixen who knows her father can’t afford a $48k wedding.  Adam Brody and Kevin Pollack are another pair of policing partners, the most bearable of all the film’s characters and a beacon of light at the end of a dank tunnel.

35mm comedy
Written by Robb Cullen, Mark Cullen
Directed by Kevin Smith
Opens Feb 26
Runtime 107 minutes
MPAA: Rated R for pervasive language including sexual references, violence and brief sexuality
Country: USA
Language: English