Cop Out” begins with The Beastie Boys, along with a sky-high perspective of New York, a shot straight out of ’80s-era cop movies.
The title, “Cop Out,” refers both to the buddy-cop genre of the movie and to the fact that director Kevin Smith had to soften the original title, “A Couple of Dicks,” so the movie could be promoted on major networks before 9 p.m.
Although this is the first movie Smith directed that he didn’t also write, his auteur’s hand flashes a middle finger throughout.
Along with stars Bruce Willis and Tracy Morgan, and producer Marc Platt, Smith took a salary cut to secure the film its R rating. This gives these two top-notch actors room to raunch.
Movie Review
Cop Out
Dive verdict: 3.5 of 5 stars
Detective Jimmy Monroe (Willis) tells his partner of nine years that he is like Wikipedia. A few scenes later Detective Paul Hodges (Morgan) asks, “D’you know that the Bonobo Chimpanzee is the only non-human primate that has oral sex?”
Morgan’s frenetic humor is dominant. He’s all over the place, his interrogation technique a series of comically deployed “HO-mages” (in his words) to other movies, from “Heat” to “Training Day” and “Dirty Dancing” to “Star Wars.”
The usually disappointing Seann William Scott here plays an equally deranged, high energy and hilarious bad guy. You’ll want to stay at least halfway through the credits to catch him again.
