Cop Out

The idea of a buddy-cop comedy starring Bruce Willis and Tracy Morgan as partners sounds like something ripe to make fun of. But how can they, when director Kevin Smith beats us to the punch? Despite reasonable doubts, the wink-and-a-nod "Cop Out" is not all that bad. Smith pushes Morgan even further over the top than usual, reins Willis in (they mostly stands around, looking bemused at Morgan's antics) and comes up with a movie that makes tiny sense, is dumb when it is not being stupid and yet is still sometimes laugh-out-loud funny.

A scene at the beginning of the film makes Smith's agenda clear. Paul (Morgan) insists on interrogating a suspect. Jimmy (Willis) watches as Paul runs through a series of movie quotes, ranging from the semi-appropriate ("Heat") to the ridiculous ("Star Wars") to, well, to "Dirty Dancing." So does Smith, dipping in to the well of practically every buddy-cop comedy you have ever seen, and doing so with glee. There is plenty of menace and violence, like in the "Beverly Hills Cop" and "48 Hours" movies. But most scenes are played for laughs, as well as a surprising number hit their mark.

It is an homage, Paul explains, an explanation that would over more weight if they pronounced the word right. No matter. It is funny, with Morgan growing increasingly manic, saliva flying as they calls up one quote after another. Jimmy's daughter (Michelle Trachtenberg) is getting married and wants an pricey wedding they cannot pay for, after they and Paul get suspended for botching a bust. Her smarmy step-dad (Jason Lee) is willing to foot the bill, but the proud Jimmy won't listen to of it. In lieu, they decides he'll sell a rare baseball card. But the memorabilia store he is gone to for an appraisal is robbed by the addled Dave (an out-and-out hilarious Seann William Scott), who makes off with the card.


Dave will prove useful to Jimmy and Paul (shades of "Lethal Weapon") as they work their way to Poh Boy (Guillermo Diaz), a drug dealer with designs on expanding his empire. They also has a fascination with baseball memorabilia, including, naturally, rare cards. If Jimmy and Paul can find a missing Mercedes for Poh Boy, he'll give them the card. Finding the automobile is no problem for them (one of their leads is a blue-mouthed kid automobile thief), but there is, of coursework, more to it than that. The finer details of the plot are not effective. Neither, , are Kevin Pollak and Adam Brody as rival cops. For nice measure, writers Robb and Mark Cullen throw in a plot line involving Paul being jealous of his wife (Rashida Jones).

Other bits work better, such as Susie Essman, channeling the curses-like-a-sailor character they plays on "Curb Your Enthusiasm," lambasting Jimmy and Paul with paint-peeling language, even as they saves them. But it is Morgan's movie. His and Smith's. This is the first film Smith has made that they didn't write, but they brings his usual pop-culture sensibility to it; without that, it would be hack work. "Cop Out" is not as nice as the films it continually salutes ("Lethal Weapon," "Beverly Hills Cop" and, , "48 Hours" were all nice, before they went down the sequel rabbit hole). But it is nice at what it does. Smith is not making fun of the movies they references. He is paying them offbeat tribute. An homage, you might say.