Armando Montano
The Paw Print
Following in a long tradition of buddy cop movies, this year’s newest addition to paired partner comedies is Cop Out, starring Bruce Willis and Tracy Morgan as the newest police partners.
Cop Out is a story of two suspended police partners, Jimmy and Paul, who in service of the New York Police Department, are both celebrating their ninth year as partners together. Things haven’t been working out for the two, even in their own private lives. Recently, Paul has become paranoid that his wife is having an affair and has gone through several efforts to discover the truth, going so far as to set up a video camera teddy bear. Jimmy discovers that his daughter, Ava, is planning on getting married and the cost for the wedding is nearly fifty thousand dollars. Wanting to make his daughter happy, Jimmy plans on selling his rare 1952 Andy Pafko baseball card to help cover the wedding costs. Unfortunately, before Jimmy is able to sell the baseball card, he is robbed by Dave, a small time thief who steals not only the card but also as Paul’s favorite gun.
In order to get their possessions back, the two investigate and discover that Dave is planning on robbing a house that night, so Jimmy and Paul stake out the house in order to nab Dave in the act and retrieve the card and gun. Once the two catch Dave and arrests him, Dave tells them that he’s already sold the baseball card and gun for drugs. With no other option, they go to the dealer who makes a deal with them; they can have the card if they bring him back a car stolen from him. Once they find the car, they discover a woman locked in the trunk. The two let the woman out but she flees, leaving behind a flashdrive hidden in a rosary containing access information to illegal offshore bank accounts. Faced with the temptation of the money that falls in their hands, Jimmy and Paul are now in a position to carry out their duty to serve and protect, to follow the card and the gun, or to cut and run.
Cop Out is a film that plays off the dynamic of two unlikely partners that somehow work out great together. In a long stream of classic buddy cop movies and some very choice pair-ups, Cop Out can stand on its own, but is perhaps a little unstable. Given that a comedy with Tracy Morgan is bound to be brash for some tastes, Bruce Willis can carry through a comedy with a nice balance. The film moves at a good pace and strays into unique territory,and although it does not play out exactly how it’s portrayed in commercials, Cop Out does have its own comedic moments. Going in to watch this film as a comedy may leave a few people unhappy, but going to see this as a buddy flick with your friends will be more memorable. Cop Out runs 107 minutes long and is rated R for pervasive language including sexual references, violence, and brief sexuality.
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