On the Big Board |
| Position |
Staff |
In Brief |
| 10/12 |
Les Winan |
Very funny in parts. Trying too hard in other parts. Fun 80s cop movie homage. |
| 167/190 |
Max Braden |
This movie feels like it was made in 1989 after Richard Dreyfuss passed on it and has been sitting on the shelf until now - completely stupid, and yet I laughed (mostly at Seann William Scott). |
Kevin Smith directs the first film he never wrote with A Couple of Dicks errr, Cop Cout — a comedy that stars Bruce Willis and Tracy Morgan as a couple of veteran LAPD cops whose exploits find them trying to track down a valuable mint-condition 1952 baseball card, rescuing a woman and dealing with laundered money.
This could be weird. The description (and alleged script) floating around the Internet seems to be precisely the sort of thing we’d expect out of Tracy Morgan, but it’s been a while since Willis has really effectively done comedy. Arguably, the only time Willis really did comedy well was when he was cutting his teeth with early episodes of Moonlighting. (I have to admit, I’m one of the few who thinks Willis’ 1991 comedy Hudson Hawk was actually pretty good.)
And what of Kevin Smith, who has never been behind the camera without his own script? Allowing a storyteller like Smith to focus on someone else’s words might be interesting, but it could also end feeling like a weird, awkward hybrid.
The film has already had a strange history. Back in October, Robin Williams sued Frank & Beans Productions when it failed to get filming started on time. Williams claimed his deal with the company guaranteed $6 million whether the film shot or not. Months later, Warner Bros. had decided to change the working title to A Couple of Cops to avoid referencing male genitalia, but after word got out that they’d changed the name, they decided to change it back.
The script was written by the Cullen Brothers, who up until now have largely (okay . . . exclusively) written for television. People may remember their work from shows like Lucky (2003,) Heist (2006,) Las Vegas (2007) and Gary the Rat (2003.) (Russ Bickerstaff/BOP)
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