Cop Out

Balls, poop, shit, fuck… yup, this is a Kevin Smith movie! Just not one with any humor. Cop Out is Smith’s first time directing a film he didn’t write, although it’s questionable if anyone was actually directing this movie. The film opens with promise as Tracy Morgan does his impersonations of lines from famous cop movies, but is immediately brought down by Bruce Willis’s obviously acted performance. Willis plays Jimmy the older and wiser cop of the pair, while Morgan plays the goofy partner in crime (or should I saw law) Paul. Cop Out centers around these two characters and plays like a stale 1980’s buddy cop film instead of satirizing one.

After unprofessional behavior on the job leads to the getaway of a suspect in a Latin drug gang, NYPD cops Jimmy and Paul have their badges taken away and must endure a month long suspension. Jimmy must then find a new source of income to pay for his beloved daughter Ava’s wedding or else her step father will and Jimmy would face the ultimate emasculation. In the process of selling his valuable baseball card, the memorabilia shop is held up at gun point and Jimmy’s card is stolen. It just so happens the number one Latin drug lord is a huge baseball memorabilia collector and Jimmy and Paul end up getting involved in the very case they were banned from. Hilarity and mishaps ensue, but Jimmy and Paul come out on top, taking down the mean Mexican drug dealers and saving the prostitute with a heart of gold that they found in the trunk of the gang leader’s Mercedes! And it ends with a white wedding!

Willis, who is totally capable of comedy as evident by his role in the television series Moonlighting, came off obnoxious. Tracy Morgan played Tracy Morgan, which in light of the rest of the movie was rather enjoyable. Rashida Jones and Michelle Trachtenberg who are both well endowed comically (Jone’s in “I Love You Man” and Trachtenberg’s role as a queen bitch on “Gossip Girl”) are way underused and play typical female roles. It’s not the casting that’s off as much as the delivery. The film is not smart enough or dumb enough to be funny. It has off-putting graphic violence that is confusingly followed directly by toilet jokes. All the characters are heavily stereotyped and in the case of the Latino gangsters it almost feels a little racist. The jokes aren’t intended to be about how silly stereotypes are, but about Mexican’s talk funny. It didn’t come across as a satire of other buddy cop movies as much as it was just another buddy cop movie.

If you must see this film the awesome 80’s hip hop and synth soundtrack will get you through the 107 minutes that is Cop Out. You’d be better off seeing Avatar again.