Originally written March 7, 2010

Me and my friend were really excited to go see Cop Out for one reason…we love movies made by Kevin Smith. However, unlike the rest of Smith’s movies, like Clerks, Dogma, etc., Cop Out is the only movie that Kevin Smith only directed and didn’t write it. All of his past works he wrote the script and directed the movie, for Cop Out he only took on the directing. So I gave Cop Out forgiveness that it wasn’t quite up to Kevin Smith’s other works.

Cop Out is a comedy about two cops, Jimmy Monroe (played by Bruce Willis) and Paul Hodges (played by Tracy Morgan). Because of their outlandish way of doing police work, they are suspended for 30 days. This isn’t good for Jimmy, because his daughter’s wedding is coming up really soon, so he needs all the money he can get. So, to pay for the wedding, Jimmy decides to sell the rarest baseball card he owns, which is worth about $75,000. However, as he’s about to sell it, a thief comes up and steals it, leaving Jimmy and Paul on a wild goose chase around the city to get back Jimmy’s card.

The plot isn’t all that over the top, but then again it’s a comedy. What really matters in that is the humor. And to be honest, you don’t have to be a fan of Smith’s work to like the humor in the movie. That’s because it’s really not like any of his other movies. In fact, compared to all of his other movies, I actually thought Cop Out was the worst. This doesn’t mean the movie is bad. There is a lot of funny moments in Cop Out, and it is enjoyable. It’s just not up to Kevin Smith’s usual stuff, but once again this is forgiven because it’s not his script.

As far as the acting goes, I’d have to say it was decent. Personally, I thought Bruce Willis gave a better performance, however Tracy Morgan did wind up carrying a lot of the jokes, so I have to give credit where credit is due. The two did okay together. Not nearly as good as other famous movie duos out there, but hey, it worked at least. The rest of the supporting cast did average as well. No memorable performances though.

For the characters in the movie, I have to say my favorite one was the thief, Dave (played by Sean William Scott). I really thought he was the funniest person in the whole movie, and I wish he would have gotten more screen time. Same with Roy (played by Jason Lee), who was also funny whenever he was on screen, as scarce as that was. The two mains were good, although a few times I did find Paul to be annoying.

Honestly, overall I just thought the movie was okay. I think I was expecting it to be a little better than it actually was. Nothing really left me laughing for long. There were good jokes here and there, but nothing that completely cracked me up. However, even though Cop Out wasn’t quite the laugh-fest I was hoping for, I’m still happy with my purchase, as I thought the movie was worth seeing.

2.5/5