Cop Out

Originally titled "A Couple of Dicks," this Kevin Smith directed entry into the vast catalog of buddy cop movies reverted to what can only be described as a self referential title, Cop Out, after negative reactions to the first choice.

Cop Out stars Bruce Willis in one of his more childish roles as James "Jimmy" Monroe and Tracy Morgan as Tracy Morgan Paul Hodges, a couple of dickish cops who have been partners for 9 years and friends for longer.  Both have been suspended without pay for screwing things up once again.  This is a problem for Jimmy since his daughter (Michelle Trachtenberg) is getting married soon and he doesn't want his wife's (Franice Swift) new husband (Jason Lee) swooping in to front the dream wedding sized bill.  Desperate for cash, Jimmy determines to sell off a valuable baseball card.  As luck would have it, a more than slightly loony guy named Dave (Seann William Scott) decides to rob the hobby store at the same moment.  This sets off a whole chain of unlikely events that has Jimmy and Paul running all around town, getting mixed up with a drug lord's daughter (Ana de la Reguera), and ending up involved in the very case they were suspended for messing up at the beginning of the film.

Cop Out is half homage to and half parody of the genre as makes fun of it but in a mostly affectionate manner.  It's not often that you see Bruce Willis perform crude humour and there's something a bit off about that.  Somehow he does manage, however, to make Tracy Morgan's typical annoying character more bearable.  He really is the film's saving grace, with a little help from Seann William Scott.  There's nothing really new to be seen here otherwise.  Morgan is nearly incomprehensible half the time, but he's not usually saying anything that probably needs to be heard anyway - most of his dialogue seems to be poop jokes, random movie quotes, or him worrying that his wife is cheating on him.  On a side note, if I was a cop, I might be somewhat offended by this movie as it portrays the entire police force as being moronic imbeciles, including the stars.

I enjoyed this one more than the last similar film I watched, Bad Boys, but find it hard to give it any higher of a rating because it really wasn't that great either.  I had fun watching it, but I can have fun watching a bunch of idiots hurting themselves on Fail Blog also - it doesn't make it a well made movie.  I did enjoy the very diverse soundtrack chosen for the movie which is all over the place in terms of style.  It kind of works though.

I don't really have much else to say - I guess it didn't leave that big of an impression on me.

*** (3/5 stars)