Let's Be Cops

One of the worst things a comedy can do is hold itself back, and that's what Let's Be Cops constantly seems to be doing.  It features two likable lead performances in Jake Johnson and Damon Wayans Jr., and then it never gives them the chance to really run wild with the material.  Instead, the first half of the movie plugs their performances into a middle of the road buddy comedy that we've seen too many times before, while the second half puts them in a by-the-numbers action thriller plot that would have seemed cliched in a 1970s TV cop show.

Johnson and Wayans play Ryan and Justin, best friends in their early 30s who are going nowhere in life.  Ryan has no real job, and coasts off his former glory as a college football superstar.  Justin, on the other hand, is a low-level video game designer with great ideas, who constantly lets other people who are less talented than him walk over him and his creative vision.  The plot kicks off with the two friends attending a college reunion party dressed as cops, because they think it's a costume party.  Turns out it's a masquerade party, and the guys are humiliated by their former classmates.  As they walk home rejected, still dressed in their police outfits, everyone starts mistaking them for real cops - Women throw themselves at them, and everyone seems to have a lot more respect for them, even the cute waitress at the local diner that Justin has long had his eye on (Nina Dobrev). 

The problem with this part of the film is that the movie never truly exploits the comedic possibilities of the situation.  The two leads basically drive around, torment a couple people, and smoke pot once in a while.  There is one scene where the guys are forced to actually aid some real cops in a store break-in situation.  This sequence comes close to building to some real laughs, but it never quite gets there.  Johnson and Wayans have good chemistry together, and with the right material, probably could be drawing some big laughs.  Instead, they're shackled to a lame script, which manages to get even lamer when it starts trying to take itself somewhat seriously as an action thriller.  The guys get the attention of a dangerous crime lord who is running a weapon smuggling scheme with some dirty cops.  This brings about a lot of generic shoot-out action scenes that seem to have been lifted wholesale from a number of generic police thrillers.

For what is supposed to be a raunchy R-rated comedy, Let's Be Cops seems fairly timid.  It shows us a lot of stuff we've seen way too many times before, such as a foul-mouthed little kid who inserts four-letter words into every line of dialogue, or over-sexed women who contort themselves in various sexual positions in front of our heroes, and...Well, that's about it.  The jokes that are supposed to seem shocking are really quite stale, and reek of desperation on the part of co-writer and director, Luke Greenfield (Something Borrowed).  There's not a single joke we can't predict, which is why it's so surprising that the two lead stars can tackle this material with as much energy as they do.  Somebody needs to team these guys up again, and give them a script that really exploits their potential.  That would be a movie worth seeing.

This is not a terrible movie, but it's just so standard that it's hard to get excited by anything that happens in it.  It disappears from your mind like vapor as soon as you walk out of the theater, and you'll be hard pressed to remember anything about it a few days after you see it.  I know that August is not exactly the benchmark of quality for movie releases, but even so, you can easily find something more memorable than this playing at your local theater without looking very hard.

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