Wednesday, January 5, 2011

Worst Films of 2010 No.7 - Cop Out


Plot:

It’s got Tracey Morgan in it, being Tracey Morgan. Also Bruce Willis playing yet another old and worn out cop. Something about Baseball cards. Look its a buddy cop film, this isn't Shakespeare.

Reasons it’s on the list:

I typically love a good genre film. There is nothing wrong with being a little predictable if you can be fun as well. Kevin Smith as director for Cop Out therefore (initially) sounded like a great idea to me. Having a long and proud history of making us laugh... well ok maybe that's a grotesque exaggeration, more like a small cluster of interesting, funny films and 10 years of wandering the cinematic wilderness... Cop Out doesn't change this.

Seriously why are Kevin Smith films still cultural landmarks? Aside from Dogma, Clerks and the excellent Chasing Amy Smith has released repetitive stoner-culture nonsense films that boast about how clever they is and never actually prove it. In fairness, he has always had an ear for hip, quotable dialogue and he's still a better film writer then he is a director. So therefore I admit I was wrong, having Smith take someone else's script and direct it should have sounded like a terrible idea. Because it is. Silly me.

Enough on Smith and the overly long point that the film is shot in a dull manner for a buddy cop film, why is Cop Out really on this list? Well Tracey Morgan is a major reason. Playing a low rent version of himself from 30 Rock, his dumb black man in a white mans world routine is lazy and tired, not to mention majorly offensive. He single-handedly is undoing years of positive race relations by playing this character that en-compromises all that is worst about cinema's depiction of an entire race. I hate this actor and the fact he can play exactly one character, his unlikable self.

Moving beyond Tracey, Bruce Willis continues the trend he has been on since Unbreakable of just not caring at all. He is boring and bored in this film, which I would be too if almost a quarter of my movie was spent swapping lame one-liners with Tracey Morgan dressed as a cell-phone. The villain Poh Boy (Guillermo Diaz) is one of the most pathetically laughable thugs I have seen all year. Even worse, he is not played for laughs at all and instead we are supposed to be scared of this character who makes Jesse from Breaking Bad seem legitimately street. Oh and Seann William Scott doing awful Bugs Bunny impersonations was just the icing on the cake.

Kevin Smith has done himself no favours whatsoever here, even goes so far as to suggest to charge film reviewers in to see future films of his after the critical drub-down Cop Out received. That's kind of telling wouldn't you say? This is like a half-baked bad TV show that just goes on too long. Smith, you have lost your way and made a film that as easily could have based for Beverly Hills X, for shame.

No I'm In A Film. No It's Shit!

If you hated this, also avoid: The Other Guys

I did struggle with which one of these films to include, but the choice was made for me when I remembered the excellent cameo that Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson and Samuel Jackson have in The Other Guys as super-hero police men. Aside from that this film is a weak Will Farrell vehicle at best and watching Mark Wahlberg play a far more mainstream-friendly version of his incredible performance in The Departed really hurts. More-over, its hard to think of a good reason to even watch the damn thing. We all know what Will Farrell movies involve and if you desire that kind of film just go watch Anchorman. Not quite as annoying and flat as Cop Out but that is faint praise indeed.

Oh I'll bet your all very excited about No.6 aren't you? 4pm tomorrow, be here! Til then!


No comments:

Post a Comment