Bruce Willis is Jimmy Monroe and Tracy Morgan is Paul Hodges, a pair of NYPD detectives who have been partners for nine years. After botching a drug bust, Jimmy and Paul are suspended without pay by their angry precinct captain. Yes, he does force them to turn in their badges and guns, but we never hear anything about the mayor shitting bricks.
With his daughter, Ava (Michelle Trachtenberg), about to be wed, Jimmy needs cash to pay for the ceremony and hopes to cash in on a valuable baseball card. Just as he’s about to have it appraised, the shop is robbed and the card snatched up. Jimmy and Paul are able to catch one of the thieves, a motor-mouthed practitioner of parkour named Dave (Seann William Scott). From him, they learn the card is now in the possession of a wannabe kingpin known on the streets as Poh Boy (Guillermo Diaz). This leads to a stolen Mercedes, a kidnapped woman (Ana de la Reguera) locked in the trunk, and Po Boy’s plot to take over the drug rackets on the entire east coast. Meanwhile, Paul is constantly worried that his wife, Debbie (Rashida Jones), is cheating on him.
Cop Out marks the first time Kevin Smith has directed a film not based on his own script. Smith is certainly an unlikely director-for-hire. His name certainly coming up due to getting along swimmingly with his fellow New Jerseyite on the set of Live Free or Die Hard. Smith, by his own admission, isn’t the most visual of directors. He and his long-time cinematographer David Klein have produced their slickest looking film to date, but the action is far too bland to excite.
The script (originally known under the far superior title of A Couple of Dicks) by Robb & Mark Cullen is a throwback to the Shane Black-style 80’s buddy cop flicks. Adding to the feel, the synth score for Cop Out is composed by Harold Faltermeyer of Beverly Hills Cop fame. But, the sad attempts at comedy here pale in comparison to films like the aforementioned Beverly Hills Cop as well as 48 Hrs. and Lethal Weapon. The movie strains under childish gags like Seann William Scott annoyingly repeating what other people say.
Bruce Willis essentially plays Bruce Willis here and that’s worked out well for him, but Tracy Morgan proves he’s not ready for a leading role. On 30 Rock, Morgan is hilarious in those short bursts. However, his Tracy Morgan shtick wears thin after an hour and forty minutes.
It’s said that every hero is only as good as his villain. If that’s the case, the heroes are incredibly weak considering their weak villains. Poh Boy and his gang are some of the least menacing and least memorable bad guys in recent memory.
Cop Out opens with Morgan interrogating a prisoner by quoting lines from random films like Jaws, Star Wars (it is a Smith film), Dirty Dancing, and even Die Hard. To paraphrase Roger Ebert, you never want to remind the audience of movies they’d rather be watching.
Rating: * ½
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