I had been warned repeatedly not to bother with Cop Out. But I just had to see it. I literally had not heard a kind word said about since it came out and I just had to see if it was really THAT bad. It was.
The fact that it is directed by Kevin Smith is an absolute shock. If had no knowledge of who directed this before I watched it, it could have been anyone helming. It lacks any kind of visual flair or any kind of directorial calling cards(although Jason Lee does have a small role), and really brings into question if Smith ever had any (and the mixed reviews for his next film Red State, seem to be backing this up.) His View Askew films ranged from good to amazing, but was it just keeping it all within the Askewniverse? Look at the one time Smith stepped out to direct Jersey Girl, another unimpressive effort. And although Zack and Miri Make A Porno was OK, but wasn't even a patch on Mallrats!
He now seems satisfied to push his 'Smodcasts' and just tweet the day away on Twitter, and that's fine because he is a funny guy, but it's looking anything not Jay and Silent Bob related is proving quite the struggle.
Rumours on set of Cop Out suggested a huge set of differences between Smith and star Bruce Willis. Getting along fine after the formers cameo in Die Hard 4, Willis wanted to work with Smith again, but apparently regretted it. Smith's marijuana use has become quite the characteristic of his latter work, and it really shows. He may feel he works better under the influence, but this isn't working from home, it's directing a big budget movie.
Anyway the film stars Willis as Jimmy Monroe, a police officer recently suspended, along with his partner Paul Hodges (Tracy Morgan.) As he needs money now to pay for his daughters wedding, he decides to sell a rare baseball card he has, but it gets stolen, and Monroe and Hodges go after it. Seriously, that's what this film is about. I know I don't normally do spoilers, but this film is terrible and you shouldn't watch it, but the baseball card thing to pay for the wedding doesn't even happen, rendering the entire 100 minutes before it even more pointless.
All the blame doesn't lie at the door of Smith. The script is appalling, and I cannot believe that it was one of Hollywood's top unfilmed scripts for so long. Really badly thought out scenarios. Hodges and Monroe are supposed to have been partners for 9 years, kind of indicating that they have been cops for at least that. But Hodges acts like he was given a badge and a gun the day before (A scene near the end shows Hodges expressing total surprise he got shot at) and the relationship between the two partners seems like they've known each other for 2 months tops.
Tracy Morgans performance. Well, I just tried to look at that like he was playing Tracy Jordan, his character from 30 Rock in one of his hilarious looking fake films. I'm sure Fat Bitch or Who Dat Ninja would have been an improvement on this. Willis, just looks bored throughout.
But I can't help but just come back to Smith again. I can understand sort of where he was coming from. A homage to the 80s buddy cop movies (Hell, even Harold Faltermeyer was convinced to come out of retirement to do the score), but did he not even glance at the script? Was the appeal of working with Willis that great, that he'd direct any old piece of crap? It's a crying shame if this is what some people remember Kevin Smith by.
*
It may earn me a 'ka-block' on Twitter, but so be it. This is a lazy, humourless, piece of garbage which seems like it was directed by someone who just suffered a severe head injury, and written by a couple of ten year olds that think cock jokes are the height of comed. Avoid like the plague.
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