Kevin Smith has always been a master of pop culture. The heavy influence of film and comic culture consistently permeates his works, adding a nice touch of geek-savvy to his humor. With his latest venture, “Cop Out”, he seems to have lost his balance, letting the references fly with a no-holds-barred attitude.
This lack of restraint is shown perfectly in the first scene when Paul Hodges (Tracy Morgan) flies of the handle interrogating a suspect, against the wishes of his 9-year partner, Jimmy Monroe (Bruce Willis). What comes next is Morgan’s torrential spouting of lines from other movies--many not even cop movies--in some unholy attempt at parody. This utter lack of subtlety sets the tone for the rest of the film.
Hodges and Morgan are then led on a chase to catch Poh Boy, a notorious drug dealer (played by Guillermo Diaz of “Weeds” fame) when, surely to any viewer’s surprise, their guns and badges are taken away. Monroe now needs to find a new way to earn money for his daughter’s wedding, deciding to finally sell that $80,000 baseball card he’s had for years. It’s no shock when things go wrong, and the card is stolen by a petty thief (Sean William Scott). This leads the duo on a chase that winds up on the doorstop of Poh Boy, leaving Hodges and Monroe with no choice but to try to take him down off the clock.
The usual buddy cop follies ensue, as expected, and these two are no less bumbling than one would expect. If you are prone to stress, be prepared to see many an avoidable problem unavoided with no simple resolution: frankly, that stresses me out. There are a fair amount of laughs, perhaps the best in one scene that shows Hodges’ nightmare of his wife’s (stunningly gorgeous Rashida Jones) infidelity acted out.
Unfortunately, however, this is part of a subplot that is at best superfluous. Another part of the plot involving Monroe planning his daughter’s wedding gets too tangential for its own good. These stories were clearly here to evoke some sympathy from the audience, but these characters are too exaggerated and the film not nearly serious enough for this to work; we don’t feel for these characters on a human basis, we merely want to laugh.
Playing partners of nine years that have developed a personal relationship, Morgan and Willis have surprisingly good chemistry when Smith can actually find a balance between melodrama and caricature. This isn’t too often and a lot of the jokes end up falling flat. At first, it seems as though Tracy Morgan is simply reprising his role from “30 Rock” but with f-words, yet later in the film he seems at least mildly aware of the goings-on. Bruce Willis is simply floundering, trying to keep up with the high-energy, loud-mouth Morgan. Comedy never being his strong suit, Willis still seems uncharacteristically tired throughout the film and does not look like he’s having any fun.
The supporting cast is rather pleasing, with Sean William Scott giving a decent comic act, though he takes a turn for the grating near the end. Adam Brody and Kevin Pollak give a great tag-team performance as the annoyingly funny “rival cops”, and Jason Lee is classic jerk as the rich husband to Monroe’s ex, always willing to throw his money around to emasculate Monroe.
“Cop Out” has a few decent laughs, especially from the supporting cast, but leaves you disappointed with a feeling of too much familiarity. Kevin Smith ultimately fails when he strays from his tried-and-true ‘View Askewniverse’, as evidenced before in the 2004 flop “Jersey Girl”.
Whatever it is that makes those films, be it Jay and Silent Bob’s subliminal influence or otherwise, Smith felt the need to exclude this time. The bottom line is, if you really need your annual buddy-cop fix, don’t waste your gas going to the theaters to catch “The Other Guys”; just head over to your local Redbox.
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Directed by: Kevin Smith
Starring: Tracy Morgan, Bruce Willis, Kevin Pollak, Sean William Scott, Rashida Jones
Rated R for pervasive language including sexual references, violence and brief sexuality
