Cop Out (2010)

Toxic waste. As funny as hearing bad news from your doctor.

It's a retro visit to those old buddy cop films, but who is this for? Frat guys passed out on the floor from booze? Stoned nematodes? Middle schooler kids sneaking in through the exit? This is dumbed down so far, that even middle schoolers would roll their eyes.

Bruce Willis just sits around looking bored. He's got some peculiar grin on his face, like some jerk who's pulling a practical joke on a blind person. Tracy Morgan does an annoyingly cheap rip off of Murphy/Pryor/Lawrence, (take your pick). Whining, moaning, stereotyped gibberish, manic babbling delivery. He points at himself and says "look how funny." They're carting around some idiot prisoner who mumbles stupidly with childish taunts, even doing the "repeat what you said" bit. Remember that from kindergarten? It wasn't funny then, either; but at least nobody charged you ten bucks to listen to it for two hours.

Painful. Almost as bad as being seated next to Kevin Smith on a crowded airplane for a 14-hour flight. This one's a wash-out.

Fmovies: When did we become so uptight about comedies and about things that makes us laugh? When did we become so demanding about jokes and humor? It's a mystery to me that viewers didn't get a clue about what was so funny in "Cop Out", an homage to action-humored flicks of the 1980's but brought into a new decade. This film is light, well intentioned, hilariously funny and with good performances by the unusual team made by Bruce Willis and Tracy Morgan.

Willis and Morgan play two suspended detectives with some personal goals to achieve. Willis wants to pay for his daughter's wedding and he needs money for it, and he would get the money by selling a rare baseball card but it was stolen from him and he needs to get back; Morgan's character doesn't trust his wife so much believing that she has an affair with the neighbor, so he keeps investigating possible affairs. But both of these cops are on the run trying to find Willis card that end up on the hands of some bad guys.

The plot is silly but that's what is funny about "Cop Out". Not only the team made by Willis & Morgan were cool but the team made by Kevin Pollak and Adam Brody as the serious detectives were responsible for the most interesting and funny moments of the film; Seann William Scott goes very well with his usual comedy style, here playing a thief. The only problem with this film is the villain played by Guillermo Diaz, because this guy is so dangerous that there's no sense of comedy about him, it's not funny, and when director Kevin Smith tries to make of him a funny guy it is just too forced, weird.

The 1980's references and the film references (mentioned by the film buff detective played by Morgan) are the best. Harold Faltermeyer's musical score in a moment taken from "Beverly Hills Cop" was a nice and funny reference (you watch the scene and you instantly remember where did they took from). And the references of "Die Hard", "Beetlejuice", "In the Heat of the Night" and many other classics, used in a comic and interesting way but it only works if you know the mentioned titles.

An easy entertainment, simple and very funny. 10/10

Saw this film as the first part of a double feature with the far more anticipated Shutter Island following, so my attention was only half there. That's about all the attention I needed, though, as it's a typical buddy cop movie through and through. Not that I expected anything different, mind you.

The whole reason I and likely 90% of the audience were there was for Tracy Morgan. And it was a "classic" Tracy Morgan performance, by which I mean he's his usual off-kilter self, some of his scenes work well and some of them fall flat on their face in awkward silence.

A 50% success rate is more than I can say for Bruce Willis, though, who looked so disinterested I was half expecting him to break character at any moment and announce he had to leave the set because he had a plane to catch for another movie he was filming.

The supporting cast of the underrated Sean William Scott and Jason Lee were their usually amusing selves, while the Latino gang villains, led by Guillermo Díaz of The Shield and Weeds fame, are absurdly over the top and clichéd, almost to the point of offensiveness.

It's a movie you'll probably see on cable while nursing a hangover one morning, or something you watch on a plane because it's light and there aren't many better choices. Hard to recommend it past that.

Cop Out fmovies. 'Cop Out' is perhaps Kevin Smith's most 'un-Kevin Smith' film. It lacks the brand of humour his previous works had. Even though he has made his share of bad films next to a few great ones, the jokes usually work. In 'Cop Out' most of them fall flat. The story (if there is one) has no direction at all. The characters are annoying. Supporting characters appear and disappear randomly. In Smith's defence, he wasn't part of the writing department (though he was involved in the editing) and the script is just one big mess. I still wonder why he decided to make this? Even the actors seem to lack interest. Tracy Morgan is completely miscast and he has no chemistry with any of his costars. Actually none of the actors have chemistry. Bruce Willis too is unimpressive. Perhaps he's finally tired of playing the same kind of role over and over again. The title is somewhat right for the movie although I don't think it ever had potential.

This is supposed to be a comedy, allegedly. I only know that because it's advertised as a comedy, though - you certainly wouldn't know because of any funny moments in the film. It's a buddy cop movie, where Bruce Willis looks as though he's overdosed on Valium and Tracy Morgan makes up for that by doing what I can only describe as a minstrel show routine.

I don't want to get on my high horse about what's supposed to be a light-hearted action cop movie, but then again I didn't want to get angry after a light-hearted action cop movie, either. Angry about Morgan's performance, a gibbering, cavorting, screeching act that wouldn't have been out of place in the days of Stepin Fetchit. Angry about the fact that no one involved seemed to give a toss - in fact they might as well have spent the whole movie just standing there, holding up two middle fingers at the audience.

But I'm angry most of all at Kevin Smith, the director of this piece of utter garbage. He used to be talented. He used to make great movies like Clerks, Dogma, even Mallrats. Yeah, that's right, I'm the guy who liked Mallrats. These days he churns out lazy rubbish and then goes on Twitter and whines at anyone who dares to criticise it. He's thrown his talent away, and he's so wrapped up in the bubble of his own self-importance that he doesn't seem to realise it. By making a film like this, and clearly not caring at all about how it turned out, he's shown his complete contempt for movie-goers, fans and the smoking wreckage of his own career. Well done, Kevin. Well done.

I saw this with my 15-year-old son, and we both laughed a lot, as did the nearly-full mid- afternoon theater audience. I have rarely seen such a stark disconnect between some scathing reviews and actual audience reaction.

Bruce Willis and Tracy Morgan have excellent chemistry. Morgan is consistently funny, and Willis goofs nicely on his own image. Sean William Scott is a hoot! You have to see his one- of-a-kind performance to believe it, and don't miss the credits!

Yes, it's no masterpiece, plot, action, or comedy-wise. The primacy of Beverly Hills Cop and Die Hard in the action-comedy pantheon is undisturbed. No new creative ground is broken here. Kevin Pollack, unfortunately, is given little to do. Adam Brody was 10 times better in Mr. & Mrs. Smith, in a far smaller role. But on the whole, the movie does what one asks of an action-comedy: it makes you laugh many times, and it does not bore you.

Ana de la Reguera is also an unexpected treat. Bonita y deliciosa.

Me and my son give it two thumbs up!