Its been fairly interest to see how Kevin Smith has handled being the director of Cop Out. Its the first movie hes made as a director-for-hire, and hes seemed to waver between all-out support for the flick and a somewhat detached attitude, as if trying to distance himself by saying its pretty much somebody elses movie.
You can kind of understand why, as its not quite like his other films, and its also a bit of a mess. Cop Out could have been great, as it has plenty of funny moments and situations, but what tries to hold it all together is rather weak. Its obviously an attempt to recreate the feel of 1980s buddy cop movies, which is more than evident from the retro score, but while Bruce Willis and Tracy Morgan make a good team, the movie itself doesnt seem sure whether it wants to be a pastiche, spoof, homage or just its own beast. Theres a bit of everything, but little to tie it together.
Willis and Morgan play cops Jimmy and Paul, who in true 80s style dont play by the rules and cant do anything without causing major mayhem. As a result they get suspended without pay for 30 days, which is particularly bad news for Jimmy, as hes got his daughters wedding to pay for. To get round his cash shortage, Jimmy decides to sell his one-of-a-kind baseball card, worth up to $80,000, but wouldnt you know it, just as he arrives at the shop to sell it, the place is robbed.
This sets Jimmy and Paul on a mission to retrieve the baseball card, which involves finding robber Dave (Seann William Scott). However they soon discover the card is now in the hands of drug kingpin PoBoy, so if Jimmy wants it back, he and Paul are going to have to get into a much more dangerous situation than they initially bargained for.
In another throwback to 80s buddy comedies, Cop Out is a lot more violent than weve become used to in the last 20 years, and like those films, a lot of it feels slightly gratuitous, especially as its a film that otherwise is kept deliberately lightweight. However this isnt too much of a problem. More tricky is that while the script is good as creating individual funny scenes, little of it fits together. It gets to the point where things that would have been funny are rendered inert because they dont fit at all with what weve seen before, and seem like a sketch dumped in from another movie.
Morgan is also a debateable choice as Paul, as while hes hilarious in 30 Rock, playing basically the same character here only works about half the time. He provides most of the laugh-out-loud moments, but the rest of the time just doesnt convince as a supposedly veteran cop, which undermines the suspension of disbelief (and thats not too high to begin with, as the plot is pretty daft).
Its a shame, as the talent is there to make a superb riff on 80s cop flicks, but the screenplay is far too weak, and while Smith tries to cover it up with a few visual fireworks, it doesnt really help. Its almost as if the writers watched 100s of 80s flicks, have tried to distil then all down into a single movie, while never really realising what made the likes of Lethal Weapon and Beverly Hills Cop work in the first place. Sean William Scott is very good though, and deserves plenty of praise.
All that said, the Blu-ray picture and sound quality is as good as youd hope, with great clarity and very good surround sound. However the real treat here is the Blu-ray exclusive Maximum Comedy Mode, which offers a completely different way to experience the movie, with Kevin Smith popping up on-screen to talk about the film, various focus point featurettes you can access and loads more. Indeed, theres so much stuff it stretches the experience of watching the movie out to three hours, and as youd expect, with Kevin Smith involved, its very funny.
Its actually one of the best produced Blu-ray exclusives Ive seen, with Smith obviously keen to really use the technology available, in order to take the audio commentary and turn it truly visual and more humorous taking you deep into the making of the movie in an innovative and entertaining way. If nothing, it really shows others what can be done with a little bit of time and effort. In fact, even if the film isnt that great, the Blu-ray gets an extra star just for the Maximum Movie mode, as thats worth watching, even if the film itself is borderline.
Overall Verdict: Some funny moments and fast pace cant hide the fact that the script is a bit of a mess and undermines the 80s cop comedy vibe.
Special Features:
Deleted Scenes
Maximum Comedy Mode
Reviewer: Tim Isaac