041: Cop Out (2010)

Title: Cop Out (2010)
Starring: Tracy Morgan, Bruce Willis, Seann William Scott
Directed By: Kevin Smith

This movie had a lot of "if" factors. If Kevin Smith can bring his brand of humor to the film, it could be one of the funniest action comedies of all time. If Bruce Willis can be in full-on "John McClane" mode, this could be a good old-fashioned shoot 'em up. If Tracy Morgan can carry a film, maybe it can find a huge audience and become a franchise. Unfortunately for Cop Out, all of the "if's" were "no's".

This is basically a by-the-numbers studio flick with some great names attached. This is 2010's Taxi. That movie had an up-and-coming star in Jimmy Fallon, a director trying out a new genre in Tim Story (Barbershop), and a proven box office draw in Queen Latifah (fresh off of Bringing Down The House). Now this is nowhere near as flat-out bad as that, but you get my point. The studios churn these things out by the discount-DVD-bin-fulls, but usually they don't attract this much talent.

Kevin Smith directed this film. Where's the wit? Where's the charm? I know he didn't write it, but still. He's capable of much better. The action scenes here are slow and muddled. The jokes are sub-standard. The performances are just AWFUL. Tracy Morgan does his whole "man-baby" shtick the ENTIRE movie. Bruce Willis looks to be bored and it seems like he genuinely hates being there.

The only thing this movie actually succeeds at is in the soundtrack. In a stroke of pure brilliance, and with a tip of the hat, Smith recruited Harold Faltermeyer as his composer. Faltermeyer is the genius behind some of the greatest action scores of the 80's (Beverly Hills Cop, Beverly Hills Cop II, Fletch, Top Gun, The Running Man), and he also hasn't scored a scripted film in over 15 years. His work in this film sounds EXACTLY how you'd think it sounds. It's synth-y, it's cheesy, and it's fantastic!

In fact, the implementation of this music leads me to believe that Kevin Smith was almost aiming for parody with this film. Perhaps, the entire thing is meant to be tongue-in-cheek. After all there IS action cliche after action cliche. Maybe this wasn't the mediocre mess that I had originally perceived it as. Maybe it's a comedy master stroke. Only time will tell, I guess. But for now, it is what it is.

Score: 6.5/10