Shame on Silent Bob. I realize that times are tough and everyone’s gotta make a living, and that that’s probably why Kevin Smith agreed to direct a big-budget studio buddy action comedy. But shame on him anyway for betraying everything that he has been as a filmmaker: brash and aggressive, angry but hopeful, and never, ever less than full of heart. Cop Out? More like Sell Out—cheap betrayal of his fans and of himself.
It’s not like Smith can’t be crude. His last movie was called Zack & Miri Make a Porno, for heaven’s sake. But he was always smart about it. This endurance event of a movie, however, plays as if it were written by a couple of kindergarteners. That could be the reason for the tittering barrage of jokes about dicks, endless dissertations on the art of making poop and one excruciatingly unbearable scene in which Brooklyn cop Tracy Morgan and perp Seann William Scott engage in a “conversation” that’s more like an escalating toddler battle for backseat-of-the-car supremacy. It’s nothing a movie purportedly by adult filmmakers, featuring adult characters, geared for adult audiences, should ever get near.
Is this supposed to be a parody of buddy action cop comedies? If it is, someone should tell Smith that merely repeating the worst idiocies of the genre does not a parody make. Morgan and his partner, Bruce Willis, have been suspended, Lethal Weapon-style—complete with the handing-over of the guns and badges— but that doesn’t stop them from hunting down Mexican drug lords and a stolen rare baseball card, committing all manner of felonies themselves in the process and generally engaging in random acts of petulant, thwarted masculinity. Adding a fake-ass Beverly Hills Cop soundtrack doesn’t accomplish anything but make us hanker for the time when these kinds of movies were actually good.
COP OUT
[Zero Stars]
Bruce Willis, Tracy Morgan, Seann William Scott
Rated R
Speaking of...
-
Punk's Dead : SLC Punk 2
A chat with the film's director before the SLC premiere.
- Feb 10, 2016
-
In Movie Nerds We Trust
Hosts Christopher James and Quinci Staker on their film-fan podcast
- Mar 13, 2015
-
You Oughta Be In (Creminelli) Pictures!
- Apr 11, 2013
- More »
More by MaryAnn Johanson
-
Feature movie review: Society of the Snow
A new adaptation finds new power in a 50-year-old event.
- Jan 3, 2024
-
Film Reviews: New Releases for Dec. 8
The Boy and the Heron, Maestro, Eileen, Leave the World Behind
- Dec 7, 2023
-
Feature movie review: MAESTRO
Bradley Cooper's Leonard Bernstein biopic avoids cliché and offers electrifying audacity
- Dec 6, 2023
- More »
Latest in Film Reviews
Readers also liked…
-
Power Plays
Two satirical comedies explore manipulations and self-delusions by those with power.
- Aug 31, 2022
