Cop Out
Buddy cop movies were nothing close to high art when they dominated multiplexes in the ’80s. They were brash, politically incorrect crap, and they were proud of it. Lethal Weapon, Beverly Hills Cop and, one of my personal faves, Tango & Cash, were trash cinema lush with violence, vulgarity and nudity—just the way they liked it in the ’80s. Having read that director Kevin Smith would, in essence, pay homage to this genre with Cop Out, I was hoping for some good trashy fun served up Smith style. Smith has proven himself a maestro of filth in the past, and I regard him as the right guy to pilot a film with an ’80s cop genre feel, but the film is a halfhearted misfire featuring an over-the-top performance from Tracy Morgan and a sleepy one from Bruce Willis. They play two cops searching for a missing baseball card and, even though it has an R rating, things are relatively tame. Smith didn’t write this one, and that much is evident because it’s not very funny.