COP OUT
(R)
MOVIE: *1/2 (out of 5)
BLU-RAY EXPERIENCE: **** (out of 5)
BY KEVIN CARR
WHAT IT’S ABOUT
Kevin Smith directs this homage to buddy cop films from the 80s and 90s. Bruce Willis and Tracy Morgan star as Brooklyn cops who are investigating a stolen baseball card, which leads them to a group of Mexican gangsters who have kidnapped a woman.
WHAT I LIKED
I didn’t like this movie that much. I didn’t like it when I saw it in the theater, but I gave it a second chance on Blu-ray. Still not a big fan, though I will admit that there are several moments that made me laugh. In particular, these moments either involved in-jokes about 80s cop films (like Bruce Willis’ character not recognizing a quote from “Die Hard”) or Seann William Scott being zany.
However, like many Kevin Smith DVDs and Blu-rays, the film itself is only a small part of the package. Using the Warner Bros. Maximum Movie Mode platform to deliver the Maximum Comedy Mode, Smith brings his spoken word style to the screen to add an hour to the running time of the film and give some brilliant insight into the making of the movie.
Featuring outtakes, deleted scenes, interviews and funny stories about the production, Smith manages to make the watching of “Cop Out” fun again… and a hell of a lot better than the movie itself.
Sigh… if only he wrote the picture, this could have been a fun movie.
WHAT I DIDN’T LIKE
All my problems with “Cop Out” are results of two main things: a crappy script and the casting of Tracy Morgan. I just don’t find Morgan funny at all. I know some people do, but he’s irritating and painful to watch. So even when there are funny lines, his delivery kills them.
The script may have been a funny read to Smith, but it just didn’t come to life. I blame this on the fact that Smith is a master with his own work but still a film student when working with someone’s else’s material. Plus, the use of Po Boy as the villain in the movie was terrible. Like “Lethal Weapon 3” (another 90s cop movie reference by moi), when the main bad guy is sub-standard, the movie suffers.
Also, Smith chose to edit the film himself, which was a colossal misfire. Like the script itself, which wasn’t very much improved with Smith’s encouraged improv, the final product ended up clunky and awkward without a professional editor behind it.
BLU-RAY FEATURES
The aforementioned Maximum Comedy Mode is the clincher in making this a great Blu-ray. There’s also break-out featurettes totally about a half-hour of content that you can watch separately. This makes a bad movie a pretty nice Blu-ray.
WHO’S GOING TO LIKE THIS MOVIE
Kevin Smith fans who also happen to like Tracy Morgan with a script Smith didn’t write.