Cop Out

Reviewed by Mike

There's things you don't know about me, Jim, I'll fuck a little kid up if he kick me in the dick! -Tracy Morgan

In a year of buddy-comedy movies (Dinner for Schmucks, The Other Guys, Hot Tub Time Machine, MacGruber, Get Him to the Greek...), there was one that I was really caught my attention- Cop Out. Actually, fuck that, I was pumped for this movie.

Tracy Morgan and Bruce Willis are N.Y.P.D. detectives who get into crazy situations full of hilarious antics!? That formula might possibly be the best for any comedy movie ever... unfortunately, the end result fell short of my expectations- way short.

The story follows Jimmy Monroe (Willis), a divorcee and down-on-his-luck veteran cop who's trying to stay on the force and front the bill for his daughters up-coming wedding. His partner, Paul Hodges (Morgan), brings the funny to the partnership via hilarious reactions and one-liners. The two get into various funny situations, from a not so by-the-book interrogation by Hodges (I got the death sentence on 12 systems!), to the way Jimmy deals with his ex-wife's new boyfriend (Jason Lee)- there are a lot of funny bits in this movie, with Hodges being the centerpiece for most of them.

Unfortunately, after a drug bust goes bad for the two cops, they get suspended and have to find a new, not so legal way to catch the bad guys... and make some money on the side. Jimmy decides to part ways with a classic (and expensive) baseball he got from his father in order to pay for his daughter Ava's (Michelle Trachtenberg) wedding. Unfortunately, when he goes to sell the card, the store is robbed by a couple of small-time crooks, one of which is a loud mouth parkour expert (Sean William Scott). The rest of the flick is full of Mexican drug dealers, unorthodox police tactics (they handcuff William Scott to the police cruiser and drag him through an abandoned lot until he agrees to help them out) and great one-liners from Morgan.

It's enjoyable to watch Willis play the hard-ass cop we all know and love (Die Hard series) and get some comic relief from the goofy stunts and random lines Morgan is constantly pulling out of seemingly no where. Sean William Scott adds additional comic relief, constantly egging Morgan on which results in some pretty funny banter.

I had really high expectations for this movie, and while I did enjoy it, for some reason I just wasn't satisfied. I think Willis' character came off as too soft in some respects and the writers (Robb and Mark Cullen) attempted to go too in depth with each character- Morgan's character spent a lot of the film worrying about his (possibly) unfaithful wife, when they should have just let him go crazy and do whatever the hell he wanted. Willis showed that he can be funny, but I think it would be best if he stuck to his usual action genre of film (although, I heard he was magic in Red).

At the end though, Cop Out was funny for one reason: Tracy Morgan. Not because Kevin Smith directed it, not because Bruce Willis played the cliche hard-ass cop with the heart of gold, not because of any other actors or any of the physical humor or sight gags- it was funny because of Tracy Morgan. The man is comedy gold; from Saturday Night Live to 30 Rock, he's great in no matter what he does. Additional case in point, the movie Totally Awesome. Probably one of the worst movies of all time, Morgan took his role as stereotypical "black guy" Darnell and made it one of the funniest characters in his repertoire.


(if you can watch this and not laugh your ass off, you have no sense of humor)

Flat out, I liked this film but I thought it could have been better (that is to say, funnier). While I haven't heard anything about a sequel in the works, I'm really hoping for one because I feel like this movie deserves another chance. The cast was good, the direction was good and the writing was good, but what we're dealing with here is a comedy that could have had... more comedy.

3 out of 5