Young Viewer’s Take
Greg Vellante

“Cop Out” is a movie filled with increasingly mediocre jokes uttered by decreasingly interesting characters.

Tracey Morgan and Bruce Willis star as Paul and Jimmy, partners in the NYPD for nine years. The opening scene involves Morgan spewing out famous yet ridiculous movie lines in his attempted interrogation of a suspect, while Willis watches his spastic antics from the spectator side of a one-way mirror. It is one of those scenes so blatantly obtuse that one almost feels cheap by succumbing into the laughter. Well then, call me cheap (I blame the economy).

As the film progressed, I slowly regained my sense of self-worth. Gags that initially had me gasping for air slowly began running low on air supply themselves, and the action gradually transformed from fast-paced to tedious.

The characters, mainly Paul, Jimmy, and an abundance of drug-dealing baddies, may come off as childish, vulgarity emitting fools playing cops and robbers, but closer observation leads to the discovery of characters who are slightly more in-depth. Unfortunately, the development of said characters is a house of cards, one that collapses shortly after construction.

Morgan plays Paul through his typical method of overacting the hell out of roles, while Willis aims for a subtle and, more often than not, funnier performance that quietly compliments the over-the-top shenanigans of his on-screen collaborator.

The partners and pals spend the film partaking in high-speed chases, sporadic shootouts, and when the action finally gets minimized, the offensively laced dialogue takes center stage. Various riffs on bowel movements and primate relations are smirk-worthy at best, while other gags, such as the one involving an 11-year-old carjacker, are more capable of bringing out the hilarity.

Aside from the crass and the crude, Paul and Jimmy can also be characterized by what drives them. The main conflict is Jimmy’s primary motivation throughout the course of the film, retrieving a stolen baseball card of his from Mexican drug dealers.

A plot that sounds silly on paper slowly unfolds once Jimmy’s actual motivation is revealed: selling the card so he can afford to pay for his daughter’s wedding, and for once, not feel like a complete loser in the eyes of his only child. Willis’ delivery of a heartfelt monologue regarding his daughter is one of the film’s only authentic moments.

Paul, on the other hand, is a married man who is constantly plagued by envy and paranoid suspicion that his wife is cheating on him with their next-door neighbor. His lack of trust not only weakens his marriage, but it also severely affects his duties as an officer.

These humanistic tweaks in the screenplay (by Robb and Marc Cullen) occasionally make the film worthwhile, but the endless stream of moronic mindlessness, while comical at times, ultimately contributes to the bulk of the “Cop Out’s” downfall.

Directed by Kevin Smith, a filmmaker typically found handling both the direction and the script, one can only speculate on how different “Cop Out” would have been if Smith had penned it. Always able to effortlessly combine naughtiness with human insight, Smith’s name almost seems misplaced within the credits of this film. In fact, it would be best to just forget this middling addition to his resume altogether.
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Greg Vellante is a graduate of North Andover High School who is currently attending UMass Lowell. He has been reviewing and writing about movies for The Eagle-Tribune since 2007.