One could say Cop Out starring Bruce Willis and Tracy Morgan is a buddy cop film full of clichés from 80’s films like Beverly Hills Cop (1984) or Running Scared (1986), certainly Lethal Weapon (1987) that mirrors those films so closely it could almost be considered a rip off or slightly better, a parody. Or, one could say it’s simply a loving tribute to black cop, white cop films that honors the best of those movies and proliferates a class of action comedy we’ll call The 80’s Buddy Cop Film genre. Either way, with Willis, and music by Harold Faltermeyer, two quintessential contributors to the best of 80’s action films, nostalgia proves to be an easy sell for Cop Out.

Director Kevin Smith (Clerks (1992), Chasing Amy (1997), Dogma (1999)) gets my approval on Cop Out mostly on his ability to take me “back to the day,” reproducing a sort of greatest hits of the 80’s action films I felt he himself admires. I also recall reading somewhere that Smith tried to secure the rights for a remake of Fletch (1987, music also by Faltermeyer), though not a buddy film the Chevy Chase investigative journalism comedy is one of my all time favorite films; not for its aesthetics but for its ability to make me laugh. So I bond with Smith on that level and can see what Smith is going for in Cop Out.

Tracy Morgan, of 30 Rock and Saturday Night Live fame, and Willis respectively play Paul and Jimmy, partner detectives who follow a lead on a drug transaction and accidentally get involved in the dealings of a burgeoning drug lord. A stake-out goes wrong and a dangerous gun chase through the city gets them suspended for thirty days, “without pay.” Jimmy’s daughter just happens to be getting married in six weeks and he’s counting on that suspended money to help pay for her wedding. Forced to sell a prized possession, Jimmy loses the item and will do anything to get it back even if includes working a deal with the bad guy. It’s as simple as it sounds, and provides plenty of opportunity to allow for lengthy, comedic dialogue between characters. Though Smith didn’t write the screenplay, it fits perfectly into his repertoire for rambling, bantering tête-à-tête between friends.

Smith’s no stranger to comedic films that cater to guys. Clerks, a film about employees of convenient stores and video rental houses, with its strong, familial camaraderie between young men, all of which have extensive, motoring dialogues on sex and relationships so straight forward and almost exploitative they would make Dr. Ruth or Dr. Drew Pinsky blush, set the pace for Smith’s career who wrote and directed that film, and financed it for less than $30,000. He makes movies for himself, which in turn is making movies for those like Smith, a small, exclusive group of fans, up until now, who grew up liking Beverly Hills Cop, Fletch, Die Hard (1988), and Lethal Weapon, in addition to super hero cartoons, comic books, Star Wars and hockey, or sports in general, like any American kid. This new Americana from Generation X is reflected in many of Smith’s films including Chasing Amy and Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back (2001). With major distribution, a big budget, and high profile stars, Cop Out will most certainly extend Smith’s audience. Is it a cop out for Kevin Smith to make a widely distributed box office contender? I say no.

Reasons I like the film: 80’s rap music from The Beastie Boys and Run DMC, and original yet familiar score by Faltermeyer make the film seem authentically nostalgic; the camaraderie and bickering between characters and the ribbing they get from fellow officers Hunsacker (a character name from Lethal Weapon) and Mangold, played by Kevin Pollak and Adam Brody work humorously off of our expectations; the homage or as Paul says in the film, “homige,” heavy on the hom, to said films above is endearing; Paul also quotes famous movie lines and there is self-reflexivity of some of those films as well, which for movie fans is a plus; a sports related plot device, or macguffin as Hitchcock calls it gets sports lovers involved; long dialogue repartee about relationships and broad comical topics like bodily functions brings Willis back to his Moonlighting roots here which is smart, fast talking comedy usually associated with Romantic Comedies; and the film relies heavily on the importance of marriage, which any wedding shenanigans in films these days is usually met with a golden ticket.

I like all of these things about Cop Out and it’s what I first came to appreciate about going to the movies—getting popcorn, ice cold Coke, laughing, escaping; no film analysis, no art, just letting go and enjoying the ride. Though that’s hard to do after picking apart films and studying technique, which is why I’ll say criticisms about Cop Out include the following: One, the bad guy, the plot, the overall story is weak; Smith will need to beef up these areas in future films if he wishes to be taken seriously. Two, the climax is anticlimactic and almost stumbled upon. In Smith’s attempt to make an 80’s film he forgot to remove some of the redundancy of the genre that history has mocked and student filmmakers have over-borrowed. You have to really like the characters to get past these rather large hurdles. And three, violence in the film becomes a distraction too as machine guns and executions are too literal, too over-the-top and in your face, so much so they’re out of place and do nothing to create an evil persona for the bad guy and his henchmen. Nor does the violence pay respect to the subtlety and surprise of these plot twist types of scenes in films of the 80’s, such as when Axel Foley’s friend is murdered in Beverly Hills Cop. It’s done in a surprising and shocking way that clearly defines Axel’s motivation to find the killer but you never see a close-up of the violent action and you never see blood.

I think Cop Out is hilarious. But what does that mean? If I say, “Cop Out is hilarious,” it’s just my opinion. I’m not quantifying why it’s hilarious. What is hilarious to me is certainly not hilarious to someone else. And if someone goes to see Cop Out because I said it was hilarious then they would have to know me, know what makes me laugh, agree with what I laugh at and also find funny themselves to then be able to say well if he thinks it’s funny then I’ll think it’s funny too. Hilarity is subjective, that’s a given. So I should say instead, “Cop Out is hilarious to me.” And most of that hilarity for me comes from Tracy Morgan. I just think the guy’s funny; he talks with a lifted emphasis on words, like a child, which on 30 Rock the irony is he’s a grown man, star of a comedy skit show like SNL who acts like and says things like a child but in a man’s body. He could say a simple word like “cheese” and the extended, staring look on his face, the way his almost old-man’s voice gravelly, hoarsely pronounces the word, “cheese,” it’ll crack me up every time.

Ironically, I have movies like Cop Out to thank for leading me to explore how films are made and thus the meaning behind why filmmakers do what they do. The discovery of film art came later out of a fondness for the medium. Well there is no deep meaning to Cop Out and what a relief, especially during award season, to just sit back and be entertained. Cop Out is the film critics will have unfavorable remarks about but it’s the film they’ll watch at home when they want a laugh. Instant DVD and TV classic. And a reminder of the fun going to the movies is about.

Rated R for pervasive language including sexual references, violence and brief nudity. Running time is 107 minutes. Here, too, are additional 80’s Buddy Cop Films, the last two more Buddy than Cop: Stakeout (1987), 48 Hours (1982), Red Heat (1988), Tango and Cash (1989), Midnight Run (1988), Stir Crazy (1980), Trading Places (1983).