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Cop Out is pretty funny...for the first 20 minutes. After that, it totally disintegrates into a generic buddy movie that could have had any two actors in the lead and gotten the same results.

Cop Out fizzles out once the action scenes kick in. In fact, it might have been a better film had the action scenes been booted in favor of more time spent concentrating on the human elements. It also might have worked better had the two leads, Bruce Willis and Tracy Morgan, had even the tiniest bit of chemistry.

They don't, and the film suffers for it.

First-time live-action feature film screenwriters Robb and Mark Cullen lose their way just barely into the film, abandoning the initial storyline altogether when it just starts cooking. They go off on a whole other tangent that involves throwing virtually every buddy cop action movie cliché into the mix. The Cullens adopt a scattershot approach to storytelling that leaps around continuously, never settling down long enough to actually develop the two leads into anything but one-dimensional characters. Sure, I realize it's just a comedy. But when the one-liners don't work and the action scenes are cheesy, it would have been nice to have had a couple of interesting characters to root for since they're on the screen and in our faces the entire running time.

The Story

Bruce Willis and Tracy Morgan play NY police officers who've been partners for nine years. Jimmy (Willis) is the more sedate, level-headed one while Paul (Morgan) is more emotional, sentimental, and easily riled up.

These are the comic book versions of cops, which is fine since Cop Out isn't trying to be Training Day. Suspended following the latest in an apparently lengthy list of bad decisions, Jimmy and Paul are forced into action in an unofficial capacity after Jimmy's prized baseball card is stolen while he's trying to sell it to pay for his only child's wedding.
If he can recover the card, he can save his pride. If not, then his ex-wife's wealthy hubby (played by Jason Lee) will foot the bill for the $50,000 wedding. Jimmy doesn't want that to happen and is willing to go to pretty much any length, including making a deal with one of the major players in the local drug trade, in order to get his rare card back still in pristine condition. Jimmy and Paul have to find a stolen Mercedes and in exchange baseball collector/drug dealer Poh Boy (Guillermo Diaz) will return the card.

After a pint-sized, underage trash-talking car thief points them in the right direction, Jimmy and Paul set off to retrieve the Mercedes. What follows is a series of misadventures involving car chases, a gorgeous mistress of a major Mexican drug lord who doesn't speak English, Seann William Scott (the funniest actor in the film) as a thief who practices Parkour, a teddy bear nanny cam, and other assorted silliness that serves no purpose other than to fill out the 100 minute running time.

The Bottom Line

We've reached the saturation point. 10 - 12 year old boys using foul language and cussing out adults is no longer funny. Maybe the first dozen times it was, but now - not so much. Now it's just annoying. And though Tracy Morgan and Bruce Willis do gamely go about playing Paul and Jimmy, neither do anything special. Morgan's playing the same type of character he's become known for, and Willis is really just along for the ride.
The one-liners come fast and furiously, but for the most part they fall flat. And the humor that works early on is nearly completely abandoned after the first half hour. Tracy Morgan's character does an entire scene in which he interrogates a druggie while paying homage to a wide range of famous movies. It's incredibly funny, but then his attachment to films is left behind as the writers throw out the funniest aspect of his character. Why? Who knows, but that single scene is the only memorable one in the entire movie.

Cop Out was directed by Kevin Smith, and has a Smith-ish vibe to it. But it's not smart, not sharply written, and the biting wit and off-color humor Smith's usually so good at delivering is unfortunately just not there. I say to opt out of seeing Cop Out.

GRADE: C-

Cop Out was directed by Kevin Smith and is rated R for pervasive language including sexual references, violence and brief sexuality.

Disclosure: This review is based on a screening provided by the studio. For more information, please see our Ethics Policy.