YOU'RE NOT GOING TO FALL FOR THE BANANA IN THE TAILPIPE? The problem with Kevin Smith's Cop Out is that it doesn't quite know if it wants to be an homage to 80s/90s interracial buddy cop flicks or a parody of them. Yes, there are amusing moments, but the tone's all over the place and the movie is indeed something of a mess.
The problem with the movie is, in many ways, the best thing about the movie: Tracy Morgan, who essentially is playing 30 Rock's Tracy Jordan thrown into police work. In other words, he often goes off into these unhinged, nonsensical riffs during the movie -- which, while often funny, undermine the credibility the character needs to remain seen as a competent police officer, which he never does. [You never questioned, by way of contrast, whether Axel Foley was a qualified police officer. Here, you're shocked when he does something right. Also, I felt like there was a whole subplot about Kevin Pollak being a corrupt cop which was snipped from the final version.]
Inserting Tracy-being-Tracy into a script originally written for Robin Williams and James Gandolfini, then Will Ferrell and Mark Wahlberg (plus the goofiness of the Seann William Scott character) sabotaged the authentic tone which the film was otherwise seeking with its Harold Faltermeyer score and solid Brooklyn location shooting. It added jokes at the expense of coherence, and the result is a movie in which you're never quite sure what kind of movie it is. Wait for cable.
