Consider this concept for a movie: An old, wisecracking New York cop is teamed up with a young, wacky sidekick whose sole purpose in the entire film is to do nothing but make jokes. Sound familiar? It should; it's been the premise for numerous comedies and is the very same for director Kevin Smith's newest film "Cop-Out."
Why after bringing us the films "Clerks 1&2" (which were moderately good and had some original ideas) would Smith decide to make cop/buddy comedy? What can I say about it except that it's predictable, forgettable and a nonstop bullet train of jokes.
Bruce Willis plays Jimmy Monroe, a smart-talking veteran of the NYPD. His partner is Paul Hodges, played by comedian Tracy Morgan.
After being suspended from the force without pay, Monroe must sell his valuable baseball card in order to get money to pay for his daughter's wedding but while he's selling the card at the pawnshop, two thieves hold up the shop and steal the card.
Together Monroe and Hodges must go on a wild and crazy adventure to try and get the card back, which has now fallen into the hands of a group of stereotypical Mexican gangsters lead by Poh Boy, played by Guillermo Diaz, who by the way is the worst actor I've seen since Hayden Christiansen in "Star Wars."
Along the way the duo take part in cliché car chases, protect an attractive woman, outsmart another pair of overconfident New York detectives, and try very hard to be funny.
In fact that's Morgan's only function in this movie: yelling at the top of his lungs, making faces, and being funny-and that worked for the first 15 minutes. But eventually it became one of those Saturday Night Live sketches that just go on too long.
Willis, meanwhile, is caught between being the funny man and the action hero and he couldn't seem to find his way. He didn't seem to care though and his performance reflected that. It was almost like he was getting tired of Morgan as well and was forcing himself to get through the filming.
The lazy and uninspired script, written by Rob Cullen and Mark Cullen, was all over the place with no surprises and corny jokes. For instance, when Morgan quotes a line from "Die-Hard," Willis remarks, "I haven't heard of that film."
Leave your brain at home for this one.
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