Buddy cop films often get a bad rap. In an art form that almost requires constant re-invention in order to remain relevant and engaging, anything tried and true like the buddy cop formula can seem like it is yesterday's news. But oftentimes old comedy tropes can be as hilarious as any edgy new trick on the block, especially when they feature comedians in their prime who can make the material feel fresh. This could have been the result in ""Cop Out,"" a collaboration between slacker generation spokes-director Kevin Smith and current comedy golden boy Tracy Morgan. Sadly, ""Cop Out"" instead proves that neither Smith nor Morgan can light Twitter afire with LOL comments unless nestled in his comedy niche.
In the duo's defense, it generally helps when a worn genre staple like the buddy cop flick has some decent legs to stand on, instead of the meager excuse for a story that exists in ""Cop Out."" Morgan plays Paul, an NYPD detective with a clichéd penchant for playing by his own rules. Bruce Willis plays his partner Jim, who plans to sell an expensive collectable baseball card in order to pay for his daughter's lavish wedding until a parkour-loving man-child bandit (Seann William Scott) steals it, forcing the two cops to turn New York upside down looking for the card. That's right, the whole movie is about Tracy Morgan and Bruce Willis knocking heads together to find a baseball card, which sounds funny at first until you realize it could be elementary school fan fiction.
But worse than the painfully awful story is the nearly tragic waste of talent. Smith has gained a well deserved cult following with films like ""Clerks"" and ""Chasing Amy,"" but where those films prospered with Smith's nerd-friendly stylized dialogue, Smith merely took the director's chair here, and the script feels woefully lifeless as a result. If not for a brief cameo by Smith's frequent collaborator and bromantic partner Jason Lee, it would be hard to tell this was a Kevin Smith film at all. Even his editing skills are off, with scenes all too often ending in a jarring rushed fashion.
Morgan and Willis don't fare any better. As a straight man, Willis leaves plenty to be desired, as he clearly left all of that charisma he showed in the ""Die Hard"" movies in the 20th century. As for Morgan, it's depressing to watch an actor who has been so consistently hilarious on ""30 Rock"" and ""Saturday Night Live"" resort to comic crutches such as YELLING EVERY SINGLE WORD BECAUSE APPARENTLY IT MAKES THINGS FUNNIER. Morgan thrives when he is given full reign to embrace his almost Dadaist tendencies of sheer random quirkiness, but here he's just asked to play the funny black man. Between Morgan and the sadly underutilized Rashida Jones of ""Parks and Recreation,"" ""Cop Out"" is probably the biggest waste of NBC Thursday night talent since ""The Office"" started sucking.
If ""Cop Out"" has any redeeming moments, they come from Seann William Scott. Effectively playing a sugar-high seven-year-old in a 30-year-old's body, Scott easily could have come off as grating, but instead he secures every big laugh the movie has, likely because he seems to just be enjoying himself, while Morgan tries too hard and Willis doesn't try at all.
That lack of effort is the fatal flaw of ""Cop Out."" While Morgan may fail to even get a slight chuckle, at least he's trying something, while Willis and Smith are clearly just here for the paychecks. Hopefully in Smith's case, he'll use that money to make some actual worthwhile projects. But even so, it's still an incredibly sad sight to see a man who once made a generational touchstone like ""Clerks"" using some friends and a few grand make something as conventionally bland as ""Cop Out"" just for the payday.
