I went to see “Cop Out” with certain expectations, and I wasn’t disappointed. The latest R-rated comedy from director Kevin Smith is over-the-top silly, idiotic, childish, and, if I’m being quite honest, hilarious.The Premise: Jimmy Monroe (Bruce Willis) and Paul Hodges (Tracy Morgan) are two veteran NYPD detectives who seem to be a magnet for trouble. About ten minutes into the film, the partners are placed on suspension due to a drug bust gone awry. (Who knew it was so hard to play a cell phone?)
The news of their suspension couldn’t have come at a worse time for Monroe, whose daughter Ava (Michelle Trachtenberg) is getting married and needs roughly $45,000 to pay for the ceremony. Her smarmy stepfather Roy (Jason Lee) offers (more as an insult to Monroe than out of love for Ava) to pay for the nuptials himself, calling it “mere pocket change.” But rather than give the unctuous Roy the satisfaction of having bested him yet again, Monroe decides to sell his prized baseball card (worth about eighty grand), which he has treasured since he was a kid.
However, before Monroe has the chance to seal the deal, his plans are thwarted by a thief (Seann William Scott) who makes off with the loot and the card. It’s not long until Monroe and Hodges discover a connection between the memorabilia-obsessed drug kingpin from their last case and the missing baseball card. So, as they attempt to recover the card, they are drawn deeper and deeper into the investigation that led to their suspension in the first place.
The film is a mixture of ’80s buddy-cop comedy and ’90s profanity-laden disaffected comedies made popular by Kevin Smith (If you don’t remember him from some of his earlier works, you may have heard of him recently as the director who was “too-fat-to fly” on Southwest Airlines.), the director of the movie. Smith developed a cult following with movies like “Chasing Amy,” “Clerks,” “Mallrats,” and “Dogma.”
Those of you who go expecting to see a typical Kevin Smith comedy may be slightly disappointed. The film lacks some of the acerbic wit and charm that came along with Smith’s clever dialogue.
Seann William Scott’s gleeful portrayal of the inept burglar (Dave) brought forth the most laughs by constantly erupting into hilarious flights of echolalia on purpose, in order to annoy and frustrate Hodges by pushing him dangerously close to the breaking point (it works).
Bottom Line: By playing on the ’80s buddy-cop formula, and especially all of its tired cliches, with a wink and a nod, “Cop Out” is in on the joke and doesn’t take itself too seriously. So, as long as you’re looking for mindless entertainment, devoid of any artistic merit, “Cop Out” will have you laughing consistently from the opening to the closing credits. (By the way, make sure you stay for the end credits to see the whole ending.)