“Medio loco en el coco (Ido de la mente!)”
-Cypress Hill, summing up this movie in ten words or less
-Cypress Hill, summing up this movie in ten words or less
Tracy Morgan: “That’s called parkour. It’s a French martial art to get you around and over stuff.”
Bruce Willis: “What are you, Wikipedia?”
-The two leads, discussing something out of a better movie
“Director Kevin Smith capitalizes on the duo's great chemistry and gets laugh-out-loud performances from Morgan as a bag of insecurities (not far from his 30 Rock role) and Willis as the stoic macho man. Still, the subplot about cash-strapped Jimmy's need to fund his daughter's wedding falls flat.”
Bruce Willis: “What are you, Wikipedia?”
-The two leads, discussing something out of a better movie
“Director Kevin Smith capitalizes on the duo's great chemistry and gets laugh-out-loud performances from Morgan as a bag of insecurities (not far from his 30 Rock role) and Willis as the stoic macho man. Still, the subplot about cash-strapped Jimmy's need to fund his daughter's wedding falls flat.”
-Thelma Adams, U.S. Weekly, in its entirety
“The nonsensical title of this movie (which was originally supposed to be something smuttier) pretty much says it all. It’s a phoned-in, gutless piece of hack work that reminds you of other, better films in the same vein.”
-A.O. Scott, The New York Times
-A.O. Scott, The New York Times
“The Upside: There are a few funny moments sprinkled throughout, mostly thanks to Tracy Morgan. The movie’s never boring. The Downside: It’s thoroughly predictable and basically a waste of Kevin Smith’s talents.”
-Robert Levin, Film School Rejects
So goes the “hype” (and criticism) for Kevin Smith’s latest film, the 2010 homage to buddy cop movies the world over, featuring the shoot-‘em-up, beat-‘em-up, and just for good measure team-‘em-up between Bruce Willis and Tracy Morgan, better known as “Cop Out.” With a movie like this, and more specifically a movie with personalities such as Kevin Smith, our two male leads, the guy from “Half Baked,” and co-writers Mark and Robb Cullen providing the screenplay, what should we, as viewers, expect?
Well, for starters, we have Bruce Willis, who came to fame as the aloof yet unstoppable action hero he has ended up playing in countless other movies. Then we throw in Tracy Morgan, best known as…what, that guy from “30 Rock”? Somebody please help me out here, what does he actually do?
Then throw in a “villain,” a baseball geek and notorious Hispanic gangster “Po’ Boy,” played by Guillermo Díaz, the aforementioned individual who has also starred in such movies as the Chappelle vehicle “Half Baked” and who is incredibly hard to take seriously as a result.
Then we have Kevin Smith, a man who has directed, written, acted, and even provided us with everything from religious satire to Superman scripts to comic books, but who is probably best known as the latter of Jay and Silent Bob. Kevin Smith has kept his hands off the screenplay this time, though, instead delegating the writing process to brothers Mark and Robb Cullen, best known for works ranging from…hmmm…if IMDb is anything to go by, they’ve done TV movies such as “Manchild” and “New Car Smell.” Interesting…
Then we have…oh, God…we have Seann Stiffler Scott. Why? Why? Why is he anywhere near this movie?
For those of you who don’t recognize the name, Seann William Scott is better known as Stiffler from the American Pie series, as well as one of the whitest guys around. This should be a nice clue that what we have on our hands is more studio-driven than the other works of Kevin Smith, who supplies more dialogue-driven scripts and typically gives his films a sort of “indie” feel that a lot of critics these days seem to enjoy.
Kevin Smith was more-or-less willing to acquiesce to the plague on mankind that is Stiffler and other various studio demands, confessing that he was trying to create a movie that his late dad would have liked. Presumably, he’s referring to the mindless, audience-friendly buddy cop flicks of the 80’s. In this sense, his heart is at least in the right place, but his apparent desire to churn out something other than his usual fare doesn’t make for good cinema.
The result, as even a cursory Google search should tell you, is something less than good cinema. Bruce Willis and Tracy Morgan don’t make for the best cop duo, the writing is far below anything we would expect from Smith, the comedy is sophomoric at best, Stiffler…is in this movie, the plot leaves much to be desired, Díaz makes for one of the most implausible big screen villains ever, the two rival cops apparently have a fetish for boots…
That being said, I liked it. I watched it with a good friend of mine from out of town a little while ago, and we both liked it. In fact, I dare say we loved it. We both realized that what we were watching was crass, moronic, and a two-hour-long pandering session targeted directly at the lowest common denominator, but we loved it nonetheless.
The two leads become much more tolerable once you’ve accepted that it’s simply Bruce Willis and Tracy Morgan playing cops and robbers. This becomes clear in the opening, where Morgan decides to go all “Scarface” during his interrogation, while Willis simply shakes his head at the “Die Hard” catch phrase. Somewhere between Morgan spouting movie quotes and Morgan running around in a giant cell phone costume, you realize this isn’t the kind of movie you shouldn’t be taking too seriously.
Speaking of the “movie quotes,” what little script there is falls victim to Morgan’s constant ad-libbing, which is about as hit-and-miss as you’d expect. It’s easy to tell when he’s going off-script—specifically, during those scenes when he proceeds to emphasize his disgust with Stiffler’s proposals.
As I was saying before, Guillermo Díaz’s murderous gangster was incredibly difficult to take seriously as the main villain. Luckily, both the actor and the movie were self-aware enough to realize that Po’ Boy really shouldn’t be played all that seriously. The end result is a thug who’s ruthless and entertaining all at once. My favorite scene has to be his first confrontation with the buddy cops (yes, a villain as pathetic as him gets more than one scene with the heroes). Say what you will about Tracy Morgan or Stiffler, but something about the guy from “Half Baked” trying to threaten a cop is hilarious. (Probably has a lot to do with the baseball card.)
Is this movie politically correct? Well, it’s a buddy cop flick with, among other fine actors, Stiffler, so that should tell you something. Somewhere between the scene with the guy getting shot by who I can only assume was a Hispanic, and…Stiffler…it’s easy to tell one way or the other. Oddly enough, both of our lead characters are loving husbands (even if one of them is divorced), and theprostitute hostage found during the second act played a fairly convincing damsel, so there was some chemistry between the male and female leads beyond “Make out with me, you will. These are the droids you’re looking for…”
So, is “Cop Out” a good movie? Well…
Note: No. No. Mm-mmm. Mm-mmm. No. No, no, no! No! HELL no! NO! NO! I refu-NO! NO!
Also, that chase sequence linked at the top of this post is made even more awesome when listening to Metallica. Specifically, "Wherever I May Roam."
Well, for starters, we have Bruce Willis, who came to fame as the aloof yet unstoppable action hero he has ended up playing in countless other movies. Then we throw in Tracy Morgan, best known as…what, that guy from “30 Rock”? Somebody please help me out here, what does he actually do?
Then throw in a “villain,” a baseball geek and notorious Hispanic gangster “Po’ Boy,” played by Guillermo Díaz, the aforementioned individual who has also starred in such movies as the Chappelle vehicle “Half Baked” and who is incredibly hard to take seriously as a result.
Then we have Kevin Smith, a man who has directed, written, acted, and even provided us with everything from religious satire to Superman scripts to comic books, but who is probably best known as the latter of Jay and Silent Bob. Kevin Smith has kept his hands off the screenplay this time, though, instead delegating the writing process to brothers Mark and Robb Cullen, best known for works ranging from…hmmm…if IMDb is anything to go by, they’ve done TV movies such as “Manchild” and “New Car Smell.” Interesting…
Then we have…oh, God…we have Seann Stiffler Scott. Why? Why? Why is he anywhere near this movie?
For those of you who don’t recognize the name, Seann William Scott is better known as Stiffler from the American Pie series, as well as one of the whitest guys around. This should be a nice clue that what we have on our hands is more studio-driven than the other works of Kevin Smith, who supplies more dialogue-driven scripts and typically gives his films a sort of “indie” feel that a lot of critics these days seem to enjoy.
Kevin Smith was more-or-less willing to acquiesce to the plague on mankind that is Stiffler and other various studio demands, confessing that he was trying to create a movie that his late dad would have liked. Presumably, he’s referring to the mindless, audience-friendly buddy cop flicks of the 80’s. In this sense, his heart is at least in the right place, but his apparent desire to churn out something other than his usual fare doesn’t make for good cinema.
The result, as even a cursory Google search should tell you, is something less than good cinema. Bruce Willis and Tracy Morgan don’t make for the best cop duo, the writing is far below anything we would expect from Smith, the comedy is sophomoric at best, Stiffler…is in this movie, the plot leaves much to be desired, Díaz makes for one of the most implausible big screen villains ever, the two rival cops apparently have a fetish for boots…
That being said, I liked it. I watched it with a good friend of mine from out of town a little while ago, and we both liked it. In fact, I dare say we loved it. We both realized that what we were watching was crass, moronic, and a two-hour-long pandering session targeted directly at the lowest common denominator, but we loved it nonetheless.
The two leads become much more tolerable once you’ve accepted that it’s simply Bruce Willis and Tracy Morgan playing cops and robbers. This becomes clear in the opening, where Morgan decides to go all “Scarface” during his interrogation, while Willis simply shakes his head at the “Die Hard” catch phrase. Somewhere between Morgan spouting movie quotes and Morgan running around in a giant cell phone costume, you realize this isn’t the kind of movie you shouldn’t be taking too seriously.
Speaking of the “movie quotes,” what little script there is falls victim to Morgan’s constant ad-libbing, which is about as hit-and-miss as you’d expect. It’s easy to tell when he’s going off-script—specifically, during those scenes when he proceeds to emphasize his disgust with Stiffler’s proposals.
As I was saying before, Guillermo Díaz’s murderous gangster was incredibly difficult to take seriously as the main villain. Luckily, both the actor and the movie were self-aware enough to realize that Po’ Boy really shouldn’t be played all that seriously. The end result is a thug who’s ruthless and entertaining all at once. My favorite scene has to be his first confrontation with the buddy cops (yes, a villain as pathetic as him gets more than one scene with the heroes). Say what you will about Tracy Morgan or Stiffler, but something about the guy from “Half Baked” trying to threaten a cop is hilarious. (Probably has a lot to do with the baseball card.)
Is this movie politically correct? Well, it’s a buddy cop flick with, among other fine actors, Stiffler, so that should tell you something. Somewhere between the scene with the guy getting shot by who I can only assume was a Hispanic, and…Stiffler…it’s easy to tell one way or the other. Oddly enough, both of our lead characters are loving husbands (even if one of them is divorced), and the
So, is “Cop Out” a good movie? Well…
Note: No. No. Mm-mmm. Mm-mmm. No. No, no, no! No! HELL no! NO! NO! I refu-NO! NO!
Also, that chase sequence linked at the top of this post is made even more awesome when listening to Metallica. Specifically, "Wherever I May Roam."
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