Review: 'Cop Out' premise is clever but execution is not

Cop Out   R   

            Kevin Smith is usually funny, but sometimes he misses the ball. This is one of those times he didn't exactly get it right, but at least he was trying. Cop Out stars Bruce Willis, Kevin's idol, and a lot of pop culture guys from the last decade, including some from American Pie and some from Buffy The Vampire Slayer. Willis and Morgan play buddy cops, ala Lethal Weapon and Rush Hour, a lackluster black and white cop joke like back to 48 hours, ala Hollywood conventional cop stories. They stumble across a drug ring that accidentally gets a hold of Willis' prized baseball card, and the trade off begins. Willis' uninteresting character is supposed to foot the bill for his daughter's wedding, with the card, but he loses it. The drug lords are all Latin gang lords, which might have raised some eyebrows, but since they cast Mexican actors in it, so that was good casting. Trachtenberg's all too brief cameo as the daughter is noted as not bad. Smith effectively parodies every buddy cop movie, including a delightfully twisted riff on Pulp Fiction, another on interrogation scenes, and a hilarious end of credits Buffy like nod scene that makes the movie. More of a homage to buddy cop movies than a spoof, and much better than say, Rush Hour 2 or Action Movie, and definitely an improvement over Bad Boys 2 and Loaded Weapon. But Smith's love fest with Willis is a little weird. They both kind of came up with the idea. Might have made a better made for TV though.     
Review by Adam Browne