Cop Out is the first film that Kevin Smith has directed but not written starring Bruce Willis and Tracy Morgan of 30 Rock fame. The film is a buddy cop comedy film which also stars Sean William Scott.

The film is based around Bruce Willis’ character desperately seeking his mint condition highly expensive baseball card that had been stolen by a gang leader so he can pay for his daughter’s wedding.

Jimmy and Paul are two cops who have been working together for nine years. This film’s story is generally based on following the cops escapades, Paul, played by Tracy Morgan is very similar to the character he plays in 30 Rock – which is an absolutely crazy gobshite. 

Another part of the story involves Paul’s emotional turmoil as in uncovers the possibility that his beloved wife is cheating on him which simply highlights how much of an absolute fool this character is but it allows for much comic relief.

The film avails of the strong comedic acting talents of Willis and Morgan but something about this film didn’t make it absolutely hilarious although there were some laugh out loud moments.

This film comes across as a bit hit and miss when it comes to the story-line too, ya might feel as if you’ve seen it all somewhere before, perhaps in Rush Hour or Bad Boys or any similar best friend partnership cop-themed film except it just doesn’t seem to cut it. There’s plenty of guns, shoot-ups and suspense but overall it all seems a tad muddled.

Kevin Smith is quoted as saying on Twitter that the film was "not MY movie” but “a movie I was hired to direct.” Perhaps he also felt the film was not up to scratch or that the production company were being too controlling after all it is the first film whereby a large distribution company was involved.

Perhaps Smith ought to stick to his winning formula writing and directing combination because something was amiss with Cop Out.

Emer Molloy