[Note: Cop Out opens today, Fri. Feb. 26, at area theaters. For reviews of more new releases, check out the Daily Loaf Movie Review Index.]
I don't know about you, but I hated the previews for Cop Out, the latest flick from dick-and-fart-joke king Kevin Smith. To my eyes, the trailers were a mishmash of Tracy Morgan incoherently spouting movie quotes while Bruce Willis laughed, intercut with standard-issue action scenes. Smith is an indie legend who raised $27,000 to shoot his 1994 debut Clerks, in the process spawning a cottage industry around two of that film's side characters: Jay and Silent Bob. Sixteen years and 8 features later, now he's directing Bruce Willis action movies? The good news is I had no need to worry; Cop Out turns out to be a spirited resurrection of what I thought was a long-deceased genre: the buddy cop movie.
This article appears in Feb 24 – Mar 2, 2010.