When I first saw this trailer for Cop Out, I thought it reeked of the big flop Showtime, starrring Robert DeNiro and Eddie Murphy. I gave it the the benefit of the doubt because of Bruce Willis‘s ‘Die Hard‘ background, and Tracy Morgan‘s persona from 30 Rock. This could be a great combination, with lots of action and comedy. As soon as the introduction started, I was confused straight away.
The opening throws us into the deep end. Jimmy Monroe (Willis) and Paul Hodges (Morgan) have been a duo in the force for 9 years and Hodges decides to celebrate in the middle of an interrogation. This could’ve been the movie that Morgan may have been able to step away from his Tracy Jordan character from 30 Rock, but 2 minutes into it, Tracy Jordan appears, paying ‘homage’ to what begins as cop movies and tv shows, to other one liners from movies that aren’t relevant. Monroe is the older cop, exhausted and trying to handle his daughter’s wedding. After a stake-out that goes horribly wrong, both guys are suspended without pay. However, Monroe becomes embarrassed when his ex-wife’s stinkingly rich husband Roy (played by Jason Lee) offers to pay for the wedding. So Monroe decides to cash in his prized possession, a 1952 Andy Pafko baseball card, worth around $82 000. While trying to trade it in, the comic store is burgled by 2 hopelessly masked drop-kicks, one played by Sean William-Scott, who steals the card to pay for drugs. His drug dealer?Poh Boy (Guillermo Diaz)Â – Â The guy that is the boss of the guy who they were trying to interrogate earlier in the movie.
Upon some really confusing scenes and out-of-place jokes, it turns out the drug lord Poh Boy they’re after is a big fan of the Chicago Cubs baseball team, with his headquarters stuffed full of memorabilia. In a desperate need to get his trading card back, Monroe makes a deal to help out Poh Boy find a car that was stolen from him, in return for the baseball card.
From there – the movie falls apart.
A second story-arc involves Hodges having a sneaking suspicion that his wife is having an affair with the neighbour, which the handling of it looks like it was trying to pad out the 2 hour movie. Sean William-Scott’s appearance as the robber who has a sense of humour, constantly takes the piss out of Hodges, mimicking everything while sitting in the back seat of the car. With outrageous and confusing dialogue and plot holes, Director Kevin Smith, who is famous for the View Askewniverse, even said that Cop Out was ‘not HIS movie, but a movie he was hired to direct’.
Maybe it was obvious from the start with the references to other crime/cop movies (even there was a Die Hard reference), but Cop Out was if the 30 Rock team wrote a script that Tracy Jordan made up after watching a Beverly Hills Cop / Rush Hour / Die Hard marathon.
I did laugh like a kid during the scene where there was a reference to the Looney Tunes classic “Rabbit Season, Duck Season”. Kudos for that.
[xrr rating=3/5]
Other than that, leave your brain at the door.
