What Do The Critics Say?

"It’s only a buddy cop flick and it’s still early in the year but director Kevin Smith’s hilarious "Cop Out" is without question the funniest thing to hit the screen so far in 2010. As it is this script sparkles from beginning to end with some of the hippest and most outlandish trash talk ever collected in one place at one time. Bruce Willis plays Jimmy, Tracy Morgan plays Paul, and the two form an updated "Car 54 Where Are You?" cop-clown duo. Who needs a plot with a herd of stand-up comics and a bushel of wisecracks?" MONSTERS AND CRITICS "A hilarious, laugh out loud funny comedy, "Cop Out" consists of an unusually brilliant combination of talents. Written by Robb and Mark Cullen, the movie captures the wit and humor that made the buddy film so popular in the past. And though he seemed an odd choice to me, credit must also go to director Kevin Smith, who for the first time directs a film he didn’t write. Smith proves himself a fine action director, his camera flowing seamlessly through scenes." Mike Smith NOLAN'S POP CULTURE REVIEW "Director Kevin Smith capitalizes on the duo's great chemistry and gets laugh-out-loud performances from Morgan as a bag of insecurities (not far from his 30 Rock role) and Willis as the stoic macho man." Thelma Adams U.S. WEEKLY "Bruce Willis, who is much the same as he always is in tough guy roles, with the intensity turned down a notch. Ana de la Reguera, on the other hand, grabs her small supporting role as Gabriela, a gorgeous Mexican gang insider and delivers the film's knock out performance. Not far behind is Kevin Pollak as one of the cops on the case, and Guillermo Diaz as bad boy Poh Boy." Andrew L Urban URBAN CINEFILE "Smith’s "Cop Out" is a homage to a genre that consistently delivers solid guilty pleasures, but gets less respect than General Tso’s Chicken from a mall food court. Willis is the gritty Type A with a sociopathic streak running through him. Morgan is always funny. "Cop Out", is not only better-than-decent viewing whether you’re nursing the weekend hangover or stone cold sober, but it’s the rare movie that passes the eyeball test in which the actors actually seem to be having fun." Mike Ward SCREEN SCENE

"Seann William Scott, a real charmer with a career that hasn’t done him a lot of favors since his Stifler days (although "Welcome To The Jungle" is classic), manages to steal every scene in which he appears. It satisfies the demands of being entertaining, and doesn't bother with the business of emotional depth or even particularly effective storytelling. It abandons the pretense of personal vision in favor of superficial fun, paying homage to ‘80s buddy cop movies." Todd Gilchrist H MAGAZINE "The always good Willis plays it straight for the most part, while the often annoying Morgan spews his lines in a rapid fire, spittle-filled delivery. Is it a Cop Out to make a throwback to the '80s buddy cop comedy instead of doing something original? Maybe, but at least it'll make you laugh out loud a few times. Doesn’t pretend to be anything else but what it is: a sometimes riotous, mostly silly buddy cop flick." Kit Bowen THE MOVIE KIT "Smith and writers Robb and Mark Cullen have borrowed from all of their favorite cop comedies and actioners of the '80s and '90s, paying homage to all of the most obvious clichés of the genre. And while "Cop Out" doesn’t really have anything new or important to say as a film (except “Weren’t the "Lethal Weapon" and "Die Hard" movies awesome?”), it’s fun while it lasts." Jen Yamato FANDANGO MOVIES "The script for Cop Out: originally and controversially called A Couple Of Dicks; is courtesy of first-time screenwriters and brother duo Robb and Mark Cullen, who picked up an Emmy nomination for comedy writing for their U.S. cable series, Lucky. While still a rude, crude and chatty man film, as Smith’s movies often are, Cop Out works." Jane Stevenson JAM! MOVIES "What matters the most is whether or not the film's funny and believe me, it is. "Cop Out" is a most fun throwback to 1980s action comedies. It's not as great as Edgar Wright's "Hot Fuzz" or David Gordon Green's "Pineapple Express" but, in a way, that's a good thing. Those films were kinda too clever and well directed, they transcended their influences and became their own thing." Kevin N Laforest MONTREAL FILM JOURNAL

The Inside Story Of Cop Out "Cop Out" is in many ways a throwback to one of cinema’s most popular film genres: the classic buddy cop movie; with Director Kevin Smith’s own slightly skewed view. Directing for the first time from someone else’s script, Smith’s initial reaction to the screenplay was that it was "steeped in movie cop heritage." When he read it, his first thought was,"Wow, if I’d ever written a buddy cop movie, it would be like this." "One of the things Kevin does so well in his films is the relationships, particularly between the guys," states producer Marc Platt ("Rachel Getting Married" & "NINE"). "There’s an honesty to it, a relatability to it, they feel like guys that we all know." Producer Michael Tadross ("The Thomas Crown Affair") agrees. "Bruce, as Jimmy, is the straight man and Tracy, as Paul, is this crazy guy, and it just works." "The script just made me laugh out loud when I read it," says two time People's Choice U.S.A. Award winner (1986 & 2000) and allround action hero Bruce Willis. "It was really funny…the kind of film you tell your friends to go see." Having previously worked with Smith nearly a decade ago, stand-up comedian Tracy Morgan says of the director, "He knows it, he gets it. He’s a comedian’s comedian. He directs in a way where you think you know the scene, but he’ll say, 'Yo, do this or do that, say this or say that,' and it gives it a whole different spin. I love the way he directs." "Kevin has a rapport with his audience that is magic," producer Polly Johnsen ("Clubland") affirms. "His films allow viewers to relate to the characters as the funnier versions of themselves, and take them along for the ride. It’s an awesome entertainment experience. I want to come back in my next life as Kevin Smith." On teaming Willis and Morgan, Smith notes, "My forte is really two dudes talking to each other. This film has that, plus more action than anything I’ve done before. Though there are no action figures for this one…yet. I’ll find a way,” quips the director, who is also famous for being a collector. For me, the biggest influence I drew from in making ‘Cop Out’ was Abbott and Costello. This is very much like an Abbott and Costello movie…with guns. If I made this movie, and my father was still alive and saw it, he’d say, 'You do make movies! I just thought it was you and your friends running around with a camera talking about not being able to get laid, but this has a plot, there are guns…Bruce Willis is in it!' He would’ve been so proud." Combined with Smith’s subversive comic talent and skill for improvising while shooting, and the fast and very real dialogue written by Mark Cullen and Robb Cullen, who also serve as executive producers, the result is, according to Smith, "exactly the kind of movie my dad would’ve taken me to see when I was thirteen." The Cullen brothers (who wrote seven episodes of TV'S "Heist"), who penned the "Cop Out" script, have known Smith for a while. "The second we met him, we loved him," says Mark. "He’s the smartest, sweetest guy I know." "There was no better choice for us than Kevin, because when you talk about funny and dark and wonderfully mean-spirited, there's probably nobody funnier, darker, more wonderfully mean-spirited than Kevin Smith," brother Rob said. "So, it was a natural for us; our senses of humour and our sensibilities are very similar." "I instantly fell in love with the chemistry on the page between the two characters," Platt ("Wanted") says. "Their relationship as cops and their friendship: they were instantly relatable as guys going through their own stuff at home, and trying to be good cops at the same time. But it was their friendship and loyalty in spite of their sort of personal differences that really made me root for them." "Cop Out" is set in the New York City boroughs of Queens and Brooklyn, where the NYPD is dealing with the steadily increasing violence and robberies coming largely from the Mexican drug cartel gangs. The writers spent many hours with contacts at the LAPD, which gave them insight into the real problems police and detectives face in their line of work as they developed the narrative flow of the storyline. According to Robb, the writers wanted to create a humorous base for the action to play off. As he describes it, "Funny is funnier coming out of something tragic or painful." Tadross revealed that the secret of portraying a cop in a comedy is to take it seriously. "You have to first have respect for the cops going in, whether you’re a writer or an actor. Then you can play them in a comedic sense, and it’s humorous. If you’re going to write a goofy cop role, like the Cullens did with Paul, or play a goofy cop, like Tracy does, you still have to show respect for the job. Then it’s believable. Then it works." In "Cop Out", Smith takes on both high comedy and high action, and lets them play off each other as equal partners. The pairing of quintessential, rough edged but wry action hero Bruce Willis with the zany nuttiness and sensitivity of consummate funnyman Tracy Morgan seemed almost too good to be true. Tadross, who produced "Die Hard: With a Vengeance" movies, asserts: "I jumped at the chance to work with Bruce again. The man is brilliant, he knows what he wants and he’s a friend, so it’s always a pleasure to be around someone like that. Put Bruce Willis, Tracy Morgan and Kevin Smith in the same room? I couldn’t wait to see what would come out of that. Those three guys are at the top of their game." Tadross was not the only one who’d worked with Willis on a "Die Hard" film. Director Kevin Smith played Frederick 'Warlock' Kaludis in "Live Free or Die Hard" ("Die Hard 4.0" in Australia). Platt agrees: "Bruce Willis is iconic in any kind of action movie. Casting him as Jimmy was a tremendous coup." Willis describes his character Jimmy as "a cranky, irritable cop with a wisecracking sense of humour. He shoots first, asks questions later, and cracks jokes whenever he can." Says Smith, "During production, I sat around set all day and watched the movie in a little monitor, as directors do, seeing what the camera sees. So in reality, I sat there all day watching a Bruce Willis movie, which is what I do at home anyway for free." The Cullen brothers describe Willis's character, Jimmy, as someone who’s been a detective for over twenty years, is divorced and somewhat lonely. "He hasn’t gotten the breaks to move ahead in the department. He’s more like the gunslinger of the old West, who has his own code of conduct," says Mark. Tracy Morgan, who plays the role of Paul, says he was drawn to the project because "the script was hilarious, and I loved the character. I took to him like a fish to water. Paul has some insecurities, deep down." Platt says, "Tracy Morgan is just so hilarious and his mind works in such a random fashion: the dots don't always seem like they’ll connect; but the way they ultimately do is part of his comedy." "People kept asking me, 'Is Tracy really that crazy?' and I just said to them, 'Crazy like a fox.' He knows how to use it selectively," Smith reveled. "He’s acting. Anybody can stand out there and say goofy things, but Tracy can sell it. It’s a gift, and he came into this role loaded for bear." "The fact that Kevin allowed him to go there created just the kind of comedy that is very unique to Tracy, but also gave Bruce something to play off of and react to," adds Platt. "We started with a great script, and had brilliant ad-libbers in the cast," Smith notes. One of the best ad-libbers turned out to be Seann William Scott, who plays Dave, the accidental third stooge in the Jimmy - Paul partnership and a thief who employs the physical discipline of Parkour as one of the tools of his trade and who makes off with Jimmy’s precious baseball card. "Seann had the role of Dave," says Smith ("Clerks II"). "It’s just a great, enjoyable part and I think Seann made it a pitch-perfect, twenty first century version of a kind of Bugs Bunny: he’s both charming and an instigator. Of course, Seann is the first to say that he’s not a comedian, he’s just cast in comedic parts. But I’ve seen Seann’s movies and his performance in this flick, and if he’s not a comedian I don’t know who is. Like Bugs, he’s effortlessly charming." "Dave's just a really fun, really weird guy," says Scott ("The Dukes of Hazzard"). "It's a character I love because he's different from other characters I've played. He’s not this jock jerk frat boy, but he's still inappropriate, and just as nuts." Smith notes that, "In a way, Dave is to Paul what Paul is to Jimmy, so Jimmy kind of loves Dave, because he frustrates Paul so much." Jimmy and Paul’s unorthodox style of nailing perps like Dave has two other detectives in their precinct, Hunsaker and Mangold, thinking they’re a little too independent for the greater good. They are cut from a different cloth and think that they are smarter, better cops who do things the right way: by the book. 1995 NBR Award winner Kevin Pollak ("The Usual Suspects") plays the role of Hunsaker, something of a mentor to the greener Mangold. "Our characters think they are the ones who are doing everything correctly, and that Jimmy and Paul are wildly wrong, and we take a lot of pleasure in telling them so." Adam Brody, who plays Mangold, agrees. "It's a competitive thing. I don't think that deep down Hunsaker and Mangold hate them. I think they're all brothers on the force, if you will. But I do think that they're competitive and fancy themselves as the better cops, absolutely. They’re not fans of sloppy police work. Those guys don't even file a report. They just do what they want." Pollak, who has made four films with Willis (including "Hostage", "The Whole Nine Yards", "The Whole Ten Yards") offers, "I enjoy it each and every time, even a little bit more each time. It's always like playing in the big leagues. Everybody's bringing the best they have at all times. And any time that sort of talent creates that sort of energy on the set, it gets a lot more exciting." According to Brody, Pollak himself brought a lot of entertainment to the set. "Offstage, Kevin doesn’t shut ups. He walks around doing impressions all day. He does everyone from Alan Arkin to Christopher Walken. He’s hilarious." It's reported Pollak is so convincing as Arkin that he once rang Arkins number and left a message on his answering machine. When Arkin played it back, he was convinced he'd left the message himself. The former stand-up comedian turned actor who got his big break thanks to the 1992 Rob Reiner film, "A Few Good Men", evidently also does 'spot on' impersonations of does Robert De Niro, Jack Nicholson, Peter Falk and William Shatner. Guillermo Diaz ("No Destination") plays murderous Mexican gang leader Poh Boy. "I think there’s something off about Poh Boy. He’s got what I call a crazy eye - I got a crazy eye when I played him, or at least I feel like I did. He just had something about him that was really interesting to play." Diaz is no stranger when it comes to playing villainous roles. "I love it. I feel like it’s a form of therapy, in a way, when I’m playing a hard ass. I go home calm and mellow, not angry at all. I’ve gotten it all out. So I felt great at the end of the day." Synopsis

Jimmy and Paul are a 'couple of dicks': Detectives that is, with the Brooklyn P.D. Their unorthodox methods may appeal to their work collegues, but this time they've gone too far. The result of a stake-out gone wromg at a phone shop has cost the city plenty and their superiors aren't in the least impressed. The two find themselves suspended without pay and asked to hand in their guns and badges. It couldn't come at a worse time for Jimmy. No pay means he's got to find a way to come up with the money for his daughters wedding somehow. Hell, it's only fourty eight grand! Her new step-dad has offered to pay, but Jimmy has a plan; he'll sell his prized vintage '52 Pafko baseball card to the highest bidder. After all, the last one sold for eighty three grand and his is in even better condition. While negotiating with a memorabilia shop owner, Jimmy is robbed. Now the two 'dicks' must get it back from its new owner, a ruthless, cold-blooded, murderous, Mexican drug lord named Poh Boy: before Jimmy's daughters big day.

The Verdict "Despite what some critics may think, "Cop Out" is a very entertaining film, especially if you are a fan of 'buddy flicks' and action hero Bruce Willis. Here he's teamed with well known Black American comedian Tracy Morgan, who, once you settle down with him, is the ideal foil for Willi's's no-nonsense, 'shoot first ask questions later' character, Jimmy. The two (Jimmy & Paul) are in trouble right from the outset of the film and with every passing minute, things only get worse for the hapless Brooklyn detectives; or as they describe themselves: "A Couple Of Dicks". That by the way was the films original title, but thankfully they didn't go with it. Probably because with a title like "A Couple Of Dicks", cinemagoers might misconstrue it as a film about a couple of old 'queens' or as a bio-pic about some poor soul born with two dicks! Put all fears aside: there's not a dick in sight. What "Cop Out" does offer is plenty of action, humour, drama, a good supporting cast and a storyline that offers Jimmy and Paul a shot at redemption. Well worth a look at. Willis fans will get a big kick out of "Cop Out". Recommended. 3 1/2 STARS." Who Is Playing Who?

Bruce Willis Tracy Morgan Seann William Scott Juan Carlos Hernández Guillermo Díaz Sean Cullen Kevin Pollak Rashida Jones Michelle Trachtenberg Robb Cullen Cory Fernandez Ana de la Reguera Jason Lee Francie Swift Fred Armisen Hannah Ware

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Jimmy Monroe Paul Hodges Dave Raul Poh Boy Captain Romans Hunsaker Debbie Ava Coroner Juan Gabriela Roy Pam Russian Lawyer Russian Lawyer's Wife

The Team Behind The Film

Director Writers Producers Original Music D.O.P. Film Editor Casting Production Designer Art Direction Set Decoration Costume Design

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Kevin Smith Robb Cullen & Mark Cullen Polly Cohen Johnsen/Marc Platt/Michael Tadross Harold Faltermeyer David Klein Kevin Smith Jennifer Euston Michael Shaw Jordan Jacobs Chryss Hionis Juliet Polcsa

Run Time 107 minutes Rated MA15+ [AUST] Copyright ©2010 - Warner Bros Films - All Rights Reserved ©1999-2010 The Movie Pages & impact Internet Services. All Rights Reserved. Protected by Australian and International Copyright. Trademark Laws and Intellectual Property Rights apply.