CASEY PHILLIPS : If “Cop Out” was Kevin Smith’s serious attempt at making a buddy cop film, he should have started by burning his copy of “Hollywood Cops for Dummies.” The movie is rife with overplayed stereotypes: the blustering police captain, the brown-nosing rivals, the damsel in distress. It’s only impressive how many are crammed into less than two hours.
Placing Willis and Morgan as partners embroiled in a struggle to control New York’s drug trade is an interesting, if ultimately poorly made, casting choice, but their strengths aren’t utilized. Willis tries to be funny but staggers through jokes like a one-legged unicyclist. Morgan, on the other hand, is impossible to take seriously, and he isn’t given enough comedic freedom to shine.
HOLLY LEBER: Don’t you think that if the point is to be satirical, we should know it’s satirical? Yes, I’m sure there are plenty of people who will say it’s funnier if you aren’t really sure and really have to have insights to be in the know. But really, that m.o. is just pretentious. Let’s give Smith the benefit of the doubt, however, and assume this was a satire.
It wasn’t funny. Satires are supposed to be funny and smart. I think I laughed at maybe two moments in the film and I can’t actually remember what they were. At one point my brain lost interest. I started playing “Diner” in my head.