Cop Out Review

Posted by Jeffrey Harris on 02.27.2010

Kevin Smith goes out of his comfort zone to try something different. Does it work? Jeffrey Harris checks in with his full review of Cop Out.



Directed By: Kevin Smith
Written By: Robb and Mark Cullen
Runtime: 107 minutes
MPAA Rating: Rated R for pervasive language including sexual references, violence and brief sexuality.

Jimmy Monroe - Bruce Willis
Paul Hodges - Tracy Morgan
Hunsaker - Kevin Pollak
Dave - Seann William Scott
Barry Mangold - Adam Brody
Poh Boy - Guillermo Díaz
Juan - Julio Fernandez
Ava Monroe - Michelle Trachtenberg
Roy - Jason Lee
Pam - Francie Swift
Debbie - Rashida Jones
Captain Romans - Sean Cullen

I'm hesitant to tell you about Cop Out. The reason doing so is for years I've wanted to see writer/director Kevin Smith try and branch out and go outside of his comfort zone with his typical indy-pop work. And Cop Out is very much uncharted territory for Smith. It's a movie with more action than anything he's ever done. It's also the first time Smith has directed from a script that wasn't his own, being that even Smith admits that his strength lies as a writer. For years Smith avoided doing more action-type movies like say Green Hornet because he was not confident that he could handle the action sequences a movie of that nature would require and he would simply have Green Hornet and Kato standing next to their car, walk offstage, beat a bunch of guys up, walk back to their car and talk about doing a woman in the rear. And the reason I'm hesitant to talk about Cop Out, Smith's new action comedy is because well . . . it's pretty bad.

What I do appreciate about Cop Out is the intent of making a throwback of the classic cop action comedy movies of the 1980's like Beverly Hills Cop. I appreciate Smith actually trying something different from his usual fare. I even appreciate throwing in a funky, 80's synthesizer, keyboard score from composer Harold Faltermeyer (Beverly Hills Cop, Top Gun), dusted off and removed from the shelves. The problem is that Tracy Morgan is no young and in his prime, Eddie Murphy. And Bruce Willis is how he usually is in these types of comedies, not really funny.

Cop Out at the end of the day is really the dumber, poor man's American and less funny version of Hot Fuzz. Much like Hot Fuzz did, you have a cop action-comedy riffing the types of shots and conventions usually seen in these types of movies. In some instances it yearns a decent chuckle. However, when the story introduces Brooklyn narcotics officers Paul (Morgan) and Jimmy (Willis) interrogating a suspect by having Paul lifting random lines from movies and TV shows and saying it in his funny voice, while Jimmy watches from behind the one way mirror and names the movie Paul is "homaging," I'm at a loss to realize why this is supposed to be funny. Of course they go for the cheap and easy gag of Paul saying, "Yippie ki yay motherfucker," while Jimmy barely deadpans he never saw that movie. Is this really supposed to be funny? It's not really. I think we are supposed to find Morgan's manic and exaggerated body language and drool while he's yelling and spouting random lines that apparently scare the suspect into confession funny, but it just looks ridiculous and not in a good way. Why is Paul shouting "KING KONG AIN'T GOT NOTHING ON ME?" The whole scene only serves in putting you off from Tracy Morgan's Paul from the very beginning.

I'm sorry but Tracy Morgan sucks and still isn't funny. I could barely tolerate Morgan back in the SNL days. I don't really watch 30 Rock, so I could be missing something here. But the extent of Morgan's schtick seems to be that he's black and says stuff in a funny voice so we should find him funny. There's no substance, or the only hint of which is that Paul is incredibly paranoid that his loving wife, Debbie (Jones), is cheating on him with their next door neighbor while he isn't around. Unfortunately, there's absolutely no chemistry or believability at all in the relationship between Debbie and Paul. Never once does Smith really sell that this is a really happily married couple. Paul comes off more like Debbie's roommate or crass, eccentric cousin or sibling. Smith obviously did not study this genre enough like Edgar Wright since Freebie and The Bean basically had the template for that subplot right there.

The other major issue is the plot. The catalyst of the plot is that Jimmy and Paul are supsended because they screwed up a sting against a local drug dealer. Jimmy and Paul are both suspended, and Jimmy now does not have a source of income to pay for the expensive dream wedding his daughter Ava (Trachtenberg) wants. Not doing so would mean Jimmy's humiliation at the hands of his ex-wife's new husband, Roy (Smith staple, Lee), who would pay for the wedding instead. So Jimmy plans on selling a rare, mint rookie baseball card which is stolen by a crazy thug, Dave (Scott). And Dave sells it to a drug dealer, Poh Boy (Díaz), who also happens to be the mastermind behind the drug dealing from earlier. Poh Boy is a collector of baseball swag you see. Yes sometimes movies have overly-convenient coincidences, but c'mon . . . are you kidding me? The writers make way too many reaches for the plot. The drug dealing bad guys certainly aren't menacing.

Seann William Scott who can be hit or miss is unfortunately like nails on a chalk board with his parkour loving, oddball thief. Smith does a lot of set-up for schtick in certain scenes but the payoff is ultimately lacking. Not to pile on too much, the action sequences such as the obligatory car chase and the big shoot out aren't that bad. They are actually quite decent. It's really the comedy that falls flat on it's face surprisingly.

The 411: Smith gets points for effort in trying something different, but the execution is lacking and waning in Cop Out. The movie more comes off more like 2005's The Man than a fun take/riff on the genre like Hot Fuzz. Smith seemed to be aware of how low interest was in this movie since he had to get on Twitter and his Smodcast to make a big stink about being too fat to fly on Southwest Airlines to get people to talk about him again. All it took was whining about getting kicked off a plane for being too obese to become a major news story everywhere right before his movie came out. Not a bad marketing trick I suppose.

Final Score:  5.0   [ Not So Good ]