Cop Out : Movie Review

Buddy cop movies are their own kind of classic. Fun, action packed, engaging, they’re known to be comedic (but aren’t always), pitting two mismatched people together to solve a crime or save someone. Or something. The plot is usually simple: bad guy needs stopping. It’s down to our boys (who might not even be boys, but most of the time they are) to work for the police (though sometimes one of them isn’t even a cop). It’s an easy, open formula, and has been quite successful.

Some of my personal favorite buddy cop films, or just buddy films if you want to be specific about the cop thing, include Kiss Kiss Bang Bang, the Lethal Weapon flicks, and movies of that nature. The comedic ones, for sure, because they, to me, embody what a buddy cop movie is supposed to be. The dramatic ones, like… Seven, say, follow the formula (veteran cop paired with hot headed young gun replacement) have so many other things going for them, they can be classified elsewhere.

So Cop Out fills the criteria perfectly. A gruff cop paired with his loopy partner of nine years, whose personalities conflict and yet mesh so well together that their relationship becomes the focus of the film, rather than the ultimately silly plot. They spend most of the movie looking for Bruce Willis’ baseball card, which he needs to sell to pay for his daughter’s wedding. They get mixed up in a drug seller’s bid to gain more wealth and power in his underground, illegal business through acquiring the turf and bank accounts of some recently deceased dealer. Our cop duo ends up having to stop that from happening.

Coming into this movie, I quickly realized I had no idea what it was going to be about. I saw the trailers and commercials and thought ‘buddy cop! Awesome!’ but never actually got a hint at the plot itself. I can’t say I was very impressed when I actually learned what they would be doing, but it hardly mattered. I was there for Bruce Willis and Tracy Morgan.

They were funny together. They had chemistry and worked well, which was fantastic. They were funny, and seemed to be enjoying themselves throughout, which helped. Nothing felt forced. Unfortunately when they were alone, or when one character got more focus than the other, it was Willis pulling most of the weight. He has an easy comedic grace about him, and seems right at home here, doing his job not only to make the audience laugh, but make his character more than just a joke spewing machine, but someone believable. Tracy Morgan, for one reason or another, falls short. There are some moments where he was just so difficult to watch, I looked at my clock even though I didn’t want to know what time it was. Don’t get me wrong, I am a Tracy Morgan fan. I love 30 Rock, it’s probably my favorite show in the history of television. Maybe that’s why I just can’t bring myself to take him seriously here: he’ll always be Tracy Jordan from The Girlie

Show to me.

The rest of the cast do what they need to do, and provide some laughs. Kevin Pollak and Adam Brody have a cute side story that seems to be a homage to other buddy cop films, the two playing against one another as cop duos in older films might. It highlights the difference between ‘then and now’: what you could get away with in a movie, and what’s changed now. Michelle Trachtenberg shows up as Bruce Willis’ daughter, so the Buffy the Vampire Slayer fan in me was pleased. Guillermo Diaz plays Poh Boy, the lead gangster with an affinity for baseball memorabilia, but there’s something about him that is distinctly non-threatening and vaguely goofy, and it’s not a good thing.

Seann William Scott gets a lot of time in the trailers with the duo, and I thought his role would be more substantial. As it turns out, the scenes from the commercials are most of his air time, save a few jokes kept for the film. He is energetic and funny, but it’s not outside the box of roles he usually plays. Slapstick comedy guy, kind of obnoxious and yet oddly endearing. Still, he does his job well, and adds some more laughs for the short arch of plot he’s given.

Director Kevin Smith seems to let his actors do what they want, a lot of it feeling improvised, but his touch is still prevalent. Particularly in the number of movie references throughout, with Star Wars in specific. Kevin Smith always throws back to other films, and I can’t think of a movie of his that doesn’t mention Star Wars at least once.

This is not a movie I would go and see again, if I was being made to pay for it. I’m glad I caught the matinee, too. I think seeing it once is worth it, but there shouldn’t be a rush to the theater: it would make a fine rental for a few laughs. For a wimpy plot, unintimidating ‘bad’ guy, and half of the buddy cop duo falling short, I have to give the film a C-.