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Cop Out is the first movie directed by Kevin Smith that isn’t based upon a script by himself. People expecting the traditional Kevin Smith ingredients should prepare themselves for a more slapstick movie rather than a funny dialogue movie. Even most of Smith’s regulars are absent here, with the exception of Jason Lee in a small role as the new husband to Bruce Willis’ ex-wife. Based upon this movie it would be fair to conclude it sucks to be Ashton Kutcher.
In Cop Out Bruce returns to familiar territory as he’s playing a cop. My guess is only Steven Seagal plays cops more often. He’s a bit of a loose cannon with his partner Tracy Morgan who is something of a man-child and pulls puppy faces all the time. He reminded me a bit of Dan Akroyd in Loose Cannons only more annoying.
An undercover operation goes bad destroying another operation by two competing colleagues at the station resulting in a suspension without pay. With one month of pay missing Bruce suddenly can’t pay for his daughter’s wedding and tries to sell a mint baseball card he owns worth at least $ 50.000. This made me wonder if he couldn’t sell anything that was more in line with his salary as apparently that was the amount of money he needed to pay the wedding. But when he gets mugged during a robbery on a store his card gets stolen and ends up in the possession of the new crime lord his colleagues are targeting Bruce and Tracy go to great lengths to get the card back.
It’s evident that Smith has mere directorial duties on this movie. There’s hardly any sharp and funny dialogue and most of the content is nothing different from all the buddy cop movies we had over the years. While there are certainly plenty of funny moments the movie is a bit hit and miss. Although there are possibly people who will laugh at the sight of Tracy Morgan in a giant cell phone outfit on a tricycle chasing a drug dealer, I found it to be an example of lackluster writing.
The same goes for a scene in which he performs an interrogation in which he simply quotes tons of movies. The scene is supposed to be funny, but all I was busy with was trying guess the movies he quotes.
The story line has a nice pace and keeps the comedy from getting tiresome, although it could have done without the inclusion of Morgan’s wife possibly cheating. Not once was that actually a story line that provided either a laugh or a tear.
The inclusion of Sean William Scott in the movie is proof that there were some people paying attention. He steals every scene he’s in and should have gotten more screen time.
While not the best Kevin Smith movie it is entertaining to a certain degree. It’s not bad, but not great either.
