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EDITOR’S NOTE: I enjoyed COP OUT a lot more than Gary did, and will be writing my review shortly, but in the meantime…
Director Kevin Smith will be forever known as Silent Bob in a series of films that started his career. Clerks, Clerks II, Mallrats, Chasing Amy, Dogma and Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back all have this certain salacious charm that made Mr. Smith a well-praised and well-compensated film maker. But his post-Clerks films have not done the business hoped for. Both Jersey Girl and Zack and Miri Make a Porno did little to solidify this director past his core group of followers. His newest film Cop Out doesn’t help much either.
The story is a cop buddy movie. Jimmy Monroe (Bruce Willis) and Paul Hodges (Tracy Morgan) are two partners celebrating their nine years together on the force. At one point they refer to themselves as “White Lightning” and “Black Thunder.” As our little play opens, they argue over who will interrogate a drug suspect. Paul wins the argument and goes into the room, acting like a crazed man as he spouts off line after line from not just cop movies, but films as vast as Star Wars and The Color Purple. This is the first indication that Cop Out will not be like other buddy flicks. It is also the last indication. Our suspect agrees to help this wacky duo catch a Mexican drug ring. When the deal goes awry, our two cops are suspended without pay.
To get in our plot complication, Jimmy has a daughter Ava (Michelle Trachtenberg) who is about to be married. Ava wants a big expensive wedding, something that Jimmy really can’t afford. Stepfather Roy (Jason Lee) offers to pay for the entire ceremony, which insults Dad. Though Jimmy doesn’t have any money, he does have one valuable asset, a very old baseball card. He knows that he has to sell this rarity in order to give his little girl her wish.
When the two go to the baseball card store to sell this piece of memorabilia, Jimmy is robbed of the treasure. The lead robber Dave (Seann William Scott) is a crazed wisecracking criminal. Jimmy decides to hunt down the card so he can get the money. On the other side of the coin, Paul has his own problems. He thinks that his wife (Rashida Jones) is cheating on him with the neighbor. Paul sets up a sting operation with a camera hidden in a little bear. All three of these stories blend together with the search for a bad guy’s Mercedes and the contents inside. If Cop Out sounds familiar, it is because it feels that way.
The problem with Cop Out is that is is just not fresh. If this film were made twenty-five years ago, it would have felt original. But after all the Beverly Hills Cop flicks and their copycat ilk, the formula seems trite and old. Cop Out could be called Beverly Hills NYC Cops Die Even Harder and Harder. One would expect Kevin Smith to deliver something fresh and unique and not something so paint-by-number.
The other big problem with Cop Out is the tremendous waste of a on-screen talent. Jason Lee, Michelle Trachtenberg and Kevin Pollack are cast but with nothing much to do. Performers such as these are not given the depth of a role that their acting gift cache requires. But it does look as if the two main cast members are having the time of their lives while making this. One can see Bruce Willis doing everything he can not to break apart with Tracy Morgan’s manic antics. The scenes where Morgan, Willis and Scott drive around make the film, showing elements of true comedy in a lackluster flick.
There are those who think that this is the ultimate insider flick, so self-referential that it mocks every cliche presented. It is not so much savvy as much as it is sad. A tremendous waste is the basic precis of Cop Out.
