MOVIE REVIEW: COP OUT

Cop Out pairs Bruce Willis and Tracy Morgan together as cops for the NYPD. When an undercover bust goes wrong, the two are suspended without pay. Willis then wonders how he is going to pay for his daughters $50,000 dollar wedding. To keep her step-dad from paying he must sell a baseball card which is worth over $80,000 dollars. When two morons rob the collectibles store, Willis and Morgan get thrown into an even bigger case to bust the criminals and get the card back.

Cop Out is the first Kevin Smith film that he has directed, but not wrote. Is that a bad thing, yes and no. This film will not be for everyone, but if you want to go in get a couple of laughs then it is definitely worth the time. For me, I had to break it down into three parts; the first fifteen minutes, the fifteen minute mark up to the the third act and then of course the third act. The first fifteen minutes were a little questionable. I wasn't sure if I could handle Tracy Morgan for an hour and half. Then the entire middle part was surprisingly funny and then it drops off the final stretch of the movie.

Tracy Morgan was a big surprise to me in this film. Like I said, I can't believe I didn't get tired of his routine by the end of the film, but he kept me laughing. Now if he continues to get big movie roles, there is no doubt in my mind I will get tired of him, but this was his first big movie so for now he is ok.

A lot of people are complaining on the writing. Kevin Smith is known for his scripts and since he did not write this one, I think Smith fans just went in expecting one thing and got something else. For me thought I didn't mind it. It had some eye rolling moments but I laughed enough for it to be worth the time.

I also really enjoyed all the co-stars of the film. Adam Brody and Kevin Pollak had some funny scenes together. Jason Lee and Rashida Jones were both good in the small roles they had. And much like Tracy Morgan, Sean William Scott surprised me. I can't stand that guy most of the time, but he got some laughs out of me.

As for what is wrong with the film, lets start with story. It was a very dumb plot which probably took twenty minutes of thinking up. Some of the "action" scenes would build and build and then implode into this very anti-climatic ending. I get that it's a buddy cop comedy, but come on, a little more effort could have been put into the story.

What was probably the worst part of the film for me was anytime any member of the mexican gang was in the film. It was as if they put up a sign that said "first fifty latin americans to sign will star in a film". The head gang member played by Guillermo Díaz was absolutely horrible in this film. These guys had no acting ability, much less making me believe that they were these tough guy criminals.

Finally, something I never notice but stood out like a sore thumb in this film was the score. It reminded me of Bad Boys 2 (which I love) where just about ever scene has "Shake Ya Tailfeather" in it. The music they used here was the techno-rap that was in every scene. It was horrible.

In the end, Cop Out is a flawed, turn your brain off and laugh film. Could have been a lot better, but still worth a watch if you need some laughs. I give it a 2.5 out of 5.