Cop Out
Movie Review
"Cop Out"
Review by Eric D. Snider
Grade: C-
Rating: R
Released: Friday, February 26, 2010
Directed by:
Cast:
The best joke in "Cop Out" isn't even in the movie, it's in the title. The film was originally called "A Couple of Dicks," using the old slang term for detectives, but Warner Bros. blanched at the thought of putting it on billboards and TV commercials. Party poopers, right? A change had to be made, and someone came up with "Cop Out," which means nothing in the context of the film but makes for a nice meta-commentary on the behind-the-scenes controversy.
And yeah, that's the best joke. In fact, it's almost the only joke. "Cop Out" is a pointless homage to the cheesy buddy-cop action comedies of the 1980s, employing all the familiar tropes but failing to do anything with them. It's not a parody of those movies, you see. It's just ... one of those movies. But why? You can turn on HBO or TBS any hour of the day and see something just like this, only it will actually be from the '80s, not just in the style of it.
The dicks referenced in the former title are Jimmy Monroe (Bruce Willis) and Paul Hodges (Tracy Morgan), New York City cops who have been partners for nine years and have the kind of bickering rapport that comes from working together and from being fictional characters. Jimmy has an ex-wife with a rich new husband, and a daughter (Michelle Trachtenberg) who's about to get married in a very expensive fashion. Paul has a current wife (Rashida Jones) who he thinks is cheating on him.
But never mind. None of that matters. What matters, sort of, is that there's a drug cartel run by a loco Mexican dude named Po Boy (Guillermo Diaz), and a serial burglar named Dave (Seann William Scott), and a highly valuable baseball card that Jimmy wants to sell, and all these things intersect in the convoluted, high-octane manner of a "Lethal Weapon" or what-have-you.
That's the plot. The plot doesn't really matter, does it? A movie like this, you're interested in the witty banter and the awesome action scenes. "Cop Out" doesn't have those. What it has is Tracy Morgan delivering non sequiturs the way he does on "30 Rock," only with a great deal more profanity. Some of them are funny. But Bruce Willis, who could do this kind of thing in his sleep, seems to be doing this kind of thing in his sleep, and the screenplay -- by brothers Robb Cullen and Mark Cullen (TV's "Las Vegas") -- gives him nothing to do anyway. Almost all of the film's scattered laughs are Morgan's doing.
Notably, this is the first film Kevin Smith ("Clerks," etc.) has directed that he didn't write himself. But they got it backwards. Smith is a far better writer than he is a director; if anything, someone else should be directing a screenplay he wrote, not the other way around.
It's not clear what Smith was going for here. The usual plot devices are assembled: sexy female witness (Ana de la Reguera), blustery police captain (Sean Cullen), rival cops (Kevin Pollak and Adam Brody) who give our heroes a hard time, lots of shootouts. There's even a musical score by Harold Faltermeyer, of "Beverly Hills Cop" soundtrack fame. But why recreate an '80s action comedy if you're not going to spoof it, or subvert it, or do something -- anything -- fun with it? What a curious misfire this is -- and, as it turns out, an aptly named one.
Grade: C-
Rated R, pervasive harsh profanity, some strong violence, some sexual dialogue
1 hr., 47 min.
Copyright © Eric D. Snider.
This work may not be transmitted via the Internet, nor reproduced in any other way, without written consent from Eric D. Snider.
This item has 17 comments
February 26, 2010 at 8:05 am
I think the first sign your movie is in trouble is when you decide to cast Tracy Morgan as one of the leads. Don't get me wrong, it's not that I don't like Tracy Morgan. I just really don't like Tracy Morgan.
February 26, 2010 at 11:36 am
My name is actually Sean Cullen. Sadly I am not played by the hilarious Canadian Sean Cullen but some other, boring Sean Cullen. Still, my name has only one 's' in it. Thanks!
February 26, 2010 at 7:51 pm
i usually agree with your assessments, eric, so maybe my low expectation of this movie was why i was pleasantly surprised. was it jumbled? yes. a few lightbulbs short? sure. but it was hilarious when you dont expect anything more than simple quick humor. i probably would have given this movie a c+. it needed some script work but i actually loved the acting and how they meshed together.
March 1, 2010 at 2:38 pm
i think that this review is very very wrong because it was a very good movie and it was very funny, and if you deide act stupid and be a party pooper then thats your fault, you dont have to ri=uin anyone elses experience because a lot of people decided not to go because of this harsh ad stupid review.
March 1, 2010 at 3:03 pm
Sam: Perhaps your eloquent and well-reasoned rebuttal will convince people to give the movie another chance.
March 1, 2010 at 4:29 pm
I also disagree. This was a good movie for what it is, if there is such a thing as a good comedy. Comedies are meant to be funny, not necessarily "Good". And this movie is Very funny. It, for me, was exactly what I expected from seeing the trailers. Tracy Morgan is Very funny on 30 Rock and even funny on Scare Tactics and I, quite frankly, don't see why he hasn't been lead in more movies. I also dissagree with you basing your opinion of an ENTIRE movie on whether you don't like, or really don't like one of the actors. I hate Will Ferrell, but a lot of the movies he is in are very funny. Also don't like Tim Meadows, but Ladies Man was hillarious. You are not reviewing Tracy Morgan, you are reviewing the movie, explain what it is about his performance in THIS movie that you didn't like. Movie sucks cause Tracy Morgan is in it. You mean you didn't laugh at all through the whole movie? If you didn't, you just lost your credibility as a movie reviewer as far as I'm concerned.
March 1, 2010 at 4:45 pm
Sounds like this is Sam's kind of movie...
March 1, 2010 at 9:18 pm
I enjoyed this movie it was very funny.
March 2, 2010 at 2:15 am
I'm also disappointed that the Sean Cullen in the movie is the "wrong" Sean Cullen - not the awesome comedian.
March 3, 2010 at 2:30 am
Well I think Anthony just didn't read your review at all, that's what I think.
Every word Tracy Morgan says usually gets a giggle out of me. I might still see this movie. Maybe when it gets to the 2 dollar theater.
March 5, 2010 at 4:40 pm
Haven't seen the movie, probably will agree with your review if I see the movie, but I gotta say I love Tracy Morgan simply because I imagine what it would be like to have his characters ... no, HIM as my neighbor ... [me imagining] (heh, heh ...) That would be great ...
March 7, 2010 at 8:26 am
Movie should have been called "Crap Out".....save your money
March 8, 2010 at 12:51 am
I want to say the Seann William Scott scenes saved the movie, but they didn't, because the trailers and previews gave them all away. Still, I did chuckle a bit at his back and forth with the cops ("Duck season!"), and the scene with the pint-sized car thief. But all of these were non-sequiturs that had next to nothing to do with the plot. I agree with your assessment that Kevin Smith should've written the script not directed the movie.
March 8, 2010 at 2:58 pm
I just saw this movie, going to it as a Kevin Smith fan (even though he did not write it). I thought the plot was at best very thin, but the banter was pretty good. I was actually surprised that I laughed as much as I did, but I had gone into thinking that I probably would not laugh too much.
But I was glad that I went to a matinee to see it.
March 9, 2010 at 9:06 am
""Cop Out" is a pointless homage to the cheesy buddy-cop action comedies of the 1980s"
This is exactly what I've been thinking since I saw the first trailer for this movie. And it still baffles me why people would want to see this.
Have we come full circle or something? Can Hollywood really sustain themselves indefinitely on just remaking the last 100 years of films, banking on new generations wasting their money just to see something that was lame the first time around, 20-30 years ago?
I have no desire to see this movie, but I was curious if it was actually an elaborate satire (in which case I might have seen it). Unfortunately from your review, it seems that it is not. Maybe since this thing takes itself seriously, it will be a candidate for "Eric's Bad Movies" 20 years from now, when we're going through the 3rd buddy-cop cycle.
March 10, 2010 at 3:36 pm
Do not waste your money on this film. Within five minutes I was wanting my money back. I should have been aware that something was wrong when there were only five other viewers in the theater. What a horrible film. Bruce Willis' acting capability is limited to his Die Hard role and has again managed to get another paycheck with that persona.
August 10, 2010 at 5:45 pm
Spot on, Eric. I only wish I'd read your review before watching the movie. I am glad that you explained it was supposed to be an homage. That explains the 80's music.