"Cop Out"
"Cop Out" - RBy Dave Mast
The worst thing about the movie Cop Out is the name itself. I don't understand why they connect that particular phrase with the plot of the movie. I guess perhaps it is because it has cops in it. Anyway, the story of two New York cops out to dispose of a band of drug-running thugs who a) love baseball and want to own a minor league ball club, b) collect impressive baseball memorabilia, and c) want to rule New York City. Meanwhile NYPD's unfinest Jimmy Monroe (Bruce Willis) and Paul Hodges (Tracy Morgan) have issues of their own. Recently suspended from their jobs after a major gaffe, Willis can't pay for his daughter's wedding while Morgan believes his loving wife is cheating on him. An expensive baseball card, a Mexican beauty in the trunk of a car and a wickedly zany parkour (roof jumping) thief also play into this Kevin Smith-directed plot.
It appears as though everyone who rants on this movie wants to crucify Kevin Smith for his directorial prowess, or lack thereof, in the action movie genre. Well, the last time I checked, Smith does not show up once on the big screen. Apparently people want this movie to be Clerks and Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back rolled up into a Chasing Amy plot.
Is this Smith's best effort? Not by a long shot. Is it something which people should totally abhor? Not even close. As buddy cops, rather than play the head-butting, you-drive-me-nuts run of the mill black and white cop movies made popular in the 1980s, Smith chooses to direct the roles of partners Monroe and Hodges as two cops who actually do get along well. Rather than play up the dissension between the two, he focuses on the idiosyncrasies of the pair of friends and partners of nine years instead.
I'm not sure why people want to compare everything to some other movie. This isn't 48 Hours; it's not Lethal Weapon, and we shouldn't compare it to any other movie than what it is. Who wants to walk into a movie theater or sit down in front a TV to watch a DVD thinking "I wonder how this compares to such-and-such a movie?" Let the movie work as the individual entity that it is. In that sense, Cop Out stands as a mildly amusing fare, in which Morgan offers some of his antsy, slightly off-kilter humor, at the same time acting one part cop, one part 11-year old boy, while Willis plays a tired yet dedicated man who is struggling to make his way through life.
The real treat of this cop flick isn't the action between the good guys and the drug-running baseball-loving bad guys, but rather Sean William Scott, whose hyper-kinetic, care-free parkour expert Dave pushes people's buttons more than an elevator operator. Scott's scruffy, always-present grin displays a touch of insanity behind the guy who steals Willis's pristine 1953 Andy Pafko Topps baseball card which is valued at about $80,000 — FYI: It's that valuable because it is No. 1 in the series that year, and as all knowledgeable card collectors know, back in 1953, any kid worth his salt would be putting rubber bands around the set, thus destroying the value of the top and bottom card, if he hadn't already put it in his bicycle spokes for cool rat-a-tat-tatting sound effects as he cruised down the road on his Green Hornet banana seat bike.
No matter what scene Scott is in, he's stealing it, whether he's imitating Morgan's every word, or offering sage advice from the back seat of Willis's car. Even to the very end of the movie, Scott is the best thing going here.
My guess here is, despite all of the extremely negative reviews you may have read from stuffy Roger Ebert-wanna-be critics out there, you will find ample laughs in this action-comedy. As long as action fanatics don't go looking for something inspirational in the action realm, and you go into it hoping that you'll laugh at the shenanigans of Morgan and Scott as they grate on Willis, then I think you'll find something here to like.
DM: 55
Ratings are based on a scale of 0-100, with the average movie ranked a 50, 75 being a good quality flick, and anything upwards of 85 being one not to miss. Like our good friend Billy Paxton's Private Hudson said as the villainous ET bore down on his group in the air ducts of Aliens, "That's it man. Game Over."