COP OUT - REVIEW

That Cop Out was so poorly received upon its release and became more well known for Kevin Smith's falling out with Bruce Willis than anything else is, frankly, a bit of a shame.

Originally titled "A Couple Of Dicks", Cop Out was meant to be a throwback buddy cop comedy in the vein of the Lethal Weapon series. Bruce Willis being the tough cop and Tracy Morgan being the goofy sidekick. The two cops are suspended after one of their cases goes stupidly wrong and this puts Jimmy (Willis) in a bind since he was planning to pay for his daughter's wedding instead of her irritating stepdad (played by Jason Lee). They find themselves getting back on the case since it coincides with Jimmy' lost pricy baseball card.

Sean-William Scott pops up in what would have been the Jason Mewes role as a mouthy petty thief and he very nearly steals the show. Kevin Pollak does a good job as one of the rival cops from the station and Guillermo Diaz makes an intimidating villain, as usual (see Weeds for further proof). It's a solid cast and everyone does decent work. Even Bruce Willis who may not have had that much fun on set but whose performance is nevertheless one of his most fun in recent times, action movie-wise. Tracy Morgan clearly has the time of his life, particularly in the scenes where he gets to play either good cop or bad cop, spouting out random movie lines at suspects until they crack.

"Beetlejuice, Beetlejuice, Beetlejuice!"

This is a rare instance where Smith was only onboard as director and editor but the script is appropriate and you still feel like you're watching a Kevin Smith movie. The humour throughout may be hit-and-miss but, honestly, most of it works. I found the film to be more hit than miss in the jokes department despite certain scenes lingering a tad too long on some of the skits. Plot-wise, it would have been cool to see it develop into something a little more unique and unexpected but it turns out to be unfortunately pretty predictable.

Maybe setting the whole thing in the 80's and making it nice and retro would have also helped to make Cop Out feel truly authentic as a film in that particular genre? Oh, and the whole subplot with Paul's (Morgan) wife was maybe not all that necessary. As it stands, that's pretty much all I have in terms of complaints. Some people pan this movie and even Kevin Smith himself jokes about how it bombed but it's honestly fine. I'd watch it any day over any of the Rush Hour movies.

Cop Out is entertaining, amusing, enjoyable enough. I have no real problems with it as it achieved basically what it set out to achieve. It's no Beverly Hills Cop or Die Hard: With A Vengeance, of course, but it's a fun little comedy.

Slightly underrated.