Friday, March 05, 2010

Cop Out


You know there's problems here from the opening shot of New York City. With the Beastie Boys "No Sleep Till Brooklyn" playing in the background, the camera pans from Manhattan to stop at Long Island City, which is in Queens, not Brooklyn. Director Kevin Smith, working for the first time with someone else's script, plays it loose and lazy. There is no chemistry at all between stars Bruce Willis and Tracy Morgan. In fact Mr. Willis is content to sleep walk his way through his role taking back seat to the irritating mugging of Mr. Morgan. I haven't seen Bruce Willis with so little energy in a movie since "The Sixth Sense" and he had good reason in that film.

This is a tired retread posing as a homage (a word Mr. Morgan butchers for laughs) to the '80's black/white buddy cop films like "48 Hours", and "Running Scared". The best thing is the musical score, lifted right out of "Beverly Hills Cop". The plot is weak. The action boring and even perennial scene stealer Seann William Scott can't save this mess.

The film also co-stars Guillermo Diaz, who plays his bad guy role exactly like his character on "Weeds", Kevin Pollack as another detective caught up in the same case , and Rashida Jones, who deserves better than a few scenes as Mr. Morgan's wife, who may or may not be cheating on him.

"Cop Out" is a washout. Save your time and rent "48 Hours" instead.

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