On CLIPS In March, 2010
COP OUT

Desperate to recover his rare baseball card, a veteran cop (Bruce Willis) needs help from his partner (Tracy Morgan) in this new movie from director Kevin Smith.

TRIVIA: Kevin Smith had a role in what 2007 film starring Bruce Willis?

Veteran NYPD cop Jimmy Monroe (Bruce Willis) is desperate to find his stolen rare baseball card to pay for daughter Ava's (Michelle Trachtenberg) expensive wedding. Jimmy and partner Paul Hodges (Tracy Morgan) encounter a brazen thief (Seann William Scott) and violent gangsters on their mission of recovery. "Cop Out" is a lightweight and sometimes funny homage to buddy-cop flicks. This is Kevin Smith's first shot at directing a movie he didn't write. But it feels like a Smith-written project, complete with outrageous humor and witty dialog courtesy of Robb and Mark Cullen. The opening sequence involves an interrogation that includes too many movie quotes to count. Willis and Morgan make a good team, but most of the hilarious scenes revolve around Seann William Scott. Several subplots get in the way and tend to slow down the story. Paul's suspicions about his wife Debbie's (Rashida Jones) faithfulness and Jimmy's wedding competition with his ex's smug husband (Jason Lee) are just a couple of the interruptions. Kevin Pollak and Adam Brody are rather lifeless as a pair of rival detectives who also disrupt the plot. Parts are better than the whole, but this action comedy still manages to entertain. "Cop Out" shouldn't die hard at the box office.