Let’s Be Cops

As the events in Ferguson, Mo., have played out, Luke Greenfield's sophomoric Let's Be Cops acquired an unexpected topicality, even though its mixture of bad taste and bromance makes it indistinguishable from any other witless comedy schedule-dumped into mid-August. Jake Johnson and Damon Wayans Jr. play Ryan and Justin, go-nowhere slackers whose extremely authentic police-officer costumes get them confused for real cops, a mistake they play to their advantage. The first half of the film, in which Ryan and Justin roam the streets of Los Angeles as make-believe cops, at least has a jolt of fascist glee, like Judd Apatow remaking Bad Lieutenant. The idiotic plot, which forces our bumbling heroes to take down a snarling crime lord, takes over in the second half, at which point Let's Be Cops becomes the Police Academy sequel that even David Graf would refuse to make.