Want to Rock Out? See “Cop Out” (Not “Alice in Wonderland”)
March 8, 2010 | Alicia Ostarello
Rock out with your glock out
I’d been saving my movie-going money for Alice in Wonderland until I read this review in Entertainment Weekly – so today, I’m writing a review of Cop Out. Sorry Alice, but when the last line of a review is, “By the end you’re asking, Where’s the wonder?” I’m pretty disinclined to check out your off-kilter world. Thankfully, Cop Out didn’t disappoint, and the boyfriend and I agreed we were glad we’d opted to see it.
Know first that Cop Out is not the movie you’d take your parents to while they’re in town, unless by some miracle your parents like potty-mouths, gang violence, and pop-culture references (mine don’t, and actually went as far as to tell me I should not under any circumstance see the movie with or without them). Take your friends, or if your girlfriend has a great sense of humor, take her.
The plot of the Kevin Smith directed Cop Out is simple: imagine Pineapple Express hooks up with Clerks 2, only the good guys aren’t the stoners, they’re the cops. Partners is anti-crime, played by Tracey Morgan and Bruce Willis, attempt to hunt down a ridiculously valuable baseball card so Willis can pay for his daughter’s (played by Michelle Trachtenburg) wedding. Chaos ensues (if chaos didn’t ensue, the movie would be pretty banal). Rival cop duo, played by Adam Brody and Kevin Pollak, up the ante by attempting to exemplify perfect cop techniques in comparison to Morgan and Willis’ unconventional methods. Brody takes a click back to his days on The OC by being sardonically sarcastic while worshiping the boot covered ground Pollack walks on.
Cop Out isn’t all fun and games, though. This is where the movie gets hard to watch if you dislike human brutality; much like any action-oriented flick, there’s a nitty-gritty way unpretty undercurrent to the plotline. Juan Carlos Hernandez plays the badass drug-czar who enjoys slugging baseballs into the people he takes hostage, and his gang of tough-guy, gun-happy followers exist mostly to kill on command and cut the tongues out of their victims. Yum!
What I loved about Cop Out wasn’t just that Tracey Morgan was ungodly hilarious and committed to every aspect of his character, that Bruce Willis managed to be both conniving and caring, and that there were pop-culture references flying out of everyone’s mouth almost as often as expletives. What I loved about Cop Out was this: it didn’t try to be anything other than what it was. Cop Out was a well written, character and plot driven “actomedy” (action-comedy) with unexpected moments of valuing humanity right along sides blatant disregard for life.
Not everyone is going to enjoy Cop Out; it’s in a genre of films that caters to college students and young adults. So sure, don’t take grandma. But go ahead and take yourself, your friends, and a bucket of popcorn. It’s not a bad way to avoid studying.
I went to see Alice instead – and that was the wrong decision. And a more expensive decision: $13.00 for the privilege of seeing it in 3D (thanks to vision problems, I can’t actually see any of the 3D). Disney had Tim Burton on a short leash and it wasn’t good.
Oh, so sad! I don’t know if I can continue to resist the lure of Tim Burton, but I’m glad I saw Cop Out when I did…I doubt I’d see it otherwise.