Cop Out (2010 film)

Cop Out
Theatrical release poster
Directed by	Kevin Smith
Written by	Robb Cullen Mark Cullen
Produced by	Marc Platt Polly Johnsen Michael Tadross
Starring	Bruce Willis Tracy Morgan Adam Brody Kevin Pollak Guillermo Diaz Seann William Scott
Cinematography	David Klein
Edited by	Kevin Smith
Music by	Harold Faltermeyer
Production companies	Warner Bros. Pictures Marc Platt Productions
Distributed by	Warner Bros. Pictures
Release date	February 26, 2010 (2010-02-26)
Running time	107 minutes
Country	United States
Language	English
Budget	$30 million
Box office	$55.6 million

Cop Out is a 2010 American buddy cop action comedy film directed and edited by Kevin Smith and written by Mark and Robb Cullen. It is the only film in Smith’s career that he directed without writing himself. The film stars Bruce Willis and Tracy Morgan as veteran NYPD detectives who become entangled in a case involving a stolen rare baseball card, which leads them into conflict with a memorabilia-obsessed gangster. The supporting cast includes Adam Brody, Kevin Pollak, Guillermo Diaz, and Seann William Scott.

The film was released theatrically in the United States on February 26, 2010, by Warner Bros. Pictures. Despite receiving negative reviews from critics, Cop Out became Smith’s highest-grossing film, earning $55 million worldwide against a production budget of $30 million.

Plot

Veteran NYPD detectives Jimmy Monroe and Paul Hodges are suspended following a failed robbery intervention that results in a reckless shootout. While under suspension, Jimmy faces financial stress as he attempts to pay for his daughter Ava’s expensive wedding. Refusing assistance from Ava’s wealthy stepfather, Roy, Jimmy decides to sell his rare and valuable 1952 baseball card to cover the costs.

The card is stolen during a pawn shop robbery by career criminal Dave. After arresting Dave in a subsequent burglary attempt, Jimmy and Paul learn that the card has been sold to Poh Boy, a drug dealer with a passion for sports memorabilia. In exchange for the card, Poh Boy tasks the detectives with recovering a stolen vehicle. They track the car with the help of a young informant named Tommy but are soon pursued by Poh Boy’s gang. The chase ends in a fatal crash that kills one of the gang members, Juan Diaz.

Inside the recovered vehicle, Jimmy and Paul find Gabriela, the girlfriend of a murdered rival drug dealer. Poh Boy had planned to deliver her as a trophy. While hiding in a motel, Paul grows increasingly paranoid about his wife Debbie’s fidelity after viewing ambiguous surveillance footage. Meanwhile, Gabriela disappears and is later captured by Poh Boy's men, who demand the return of a flash drive containing incriminating information.

Jimmy arranges for Dave's release to help recover the baseball card, but Dave is incapacitated during a break-in at Poh Boy’s hideout. Jimmy attempts to retrieve the card himself but is caught when Poh Boy and his men return early from a funeral. Paul discovers that Debbie was not having an affair but had staged the situation using her cousin to provoke jealousy. The detectives regroup and devise a plan to draw Poh Boy’s men away with a staged flash drive exchange at the Pulaski Bridge.

A shootout ensues when fellow detectives Barry and Hunsaker arrive, resulting in Hunsaker being wounded. Jimmy and Paul confront Poh Boy, who is holding Gabriela at gunpoint. They manage to kill him and rescue her, but Jimmy’s baseball card is destroyed by a bullet during the altercation. The precinct reinstates both officers, commending them for their actions.

At the wedding, Jimmy reluctantly allows Roy to contribute financially. When asked to give Ava away, Roy is silently forced to sit by Paul at gunpoint, allowing Jimmy to walk his daughter down the aisle. In a post-credits scene, Dave regains consciousness in the morgue, startling a mortuary worker.

Cast

Actors Bruce Willis (left) and Tracy Morgan (right)

• Bruce Willis as Detective Jimmy Monroe
• Tracy Morgan as Detective Paul Hodges
• Adam Brody as Barry Mangold
• Kevin Pollak as Hunsaker
• Guillermo Diaz as Poh Boy
• Seann William Scott as Dave
• Sean Cullen as Captain Jack Romans
• Jason Lee as Roy
• Rashida Jones as Debbie Hodges
• Adrian Martinez as Tino
• Cory Fernandez as Juan Diaz
• Michelle Trachtenberg as Ava Monroe
• Francie Swift as Pam
• Ana de la Reguera as Gabriela
• Jim Norton as George
• Marcus I. Morton as Tommy
• Mark Consuelos as Manuel

Production

Director Kevin Smith

Development

Cop Out originated as a spec script titled A Couple of Dicks by Mark and Robb Cullen, which appeared on the 2008 "Black List" of most-liked unproduced screenplays in Hollywood. The script underwent multiple title changes due to concerns about the original title’s marketability. It was first renamed A Couple of Cops and eventually released as Cop Out, a title director Kevin Smith later acknowledged was a "cop out" from the original name. The film marked the first project Smith directed without writing the script himself.

Explaining his motivation, Smith said the Cullen brothers’ dialogue-driven, buddy-cop tone reminded him of his own style, comparing the dynamic to that of his characters Dante and Randal from Clerks.^[7] Warner Bros. requested that Smith storyboard the entire film in advance, a request he fulfilled with cinematographer David Klein. They reviewed the storyboards with the studio two months before filming began.

[T]he Cullen brothers are dialogue crazy—the whole movie is like cops who are practically married but not actually, and, I mean, that's right up my alley. It's like Dante and Randal as cops.

— Kevin Smith, on why he wanted to direct the film

Casting

Smith accepted a reduced salary to work on the film, citing the opportunity to direct Bruce Willis as a key reason for his involvement. The film stars Willis and Tracy Morgan as NYPD partners, with supporting roles played by Adam Brody, Kevin Pollak, Guillermo Diaz and Seann William Scott.

However, the production was marred by reported tensions between Smith and Willis. On a 2011 episode of WTF with Marc Maron, Smith expressed deep frustration with Willis's behavior on set, saying that the actor refused to participate in promotional activities and contributed to a difficult work environment. In contrast, Smith praised Morgan’s enthusiasm and commitment. A talent representative described Smith’s directing style as disengaged, claiming he spent most of his time behind the monitor and did not interact much with the cast. Smith later defended his approach, attributing his productivity to marijuana use, which he claimed became a central part of his creative process after observing actor Seth Rogen's habits on the set of Zack and Miri Make a Porno (2008).

Following Willis’s 2022 retirement from acting due to aphasia, Smith issued a public apology for his past criticisms of the actor.

Filming

Principal photography began on June 2, 2009, in New York City and concluded on August 14, 2009. The film had a production budget of $37 million and was released theatrically on February 26, 2010, by Warner Bros. Pictures.

Music

Main article: Cop Out (soundtrack)

Release

Marketing

The first theatrical trailer for Cop Out was released on December 23, 2009, and was subsequently attached to screenings of Sherlock Holmes. A red-band trailer featuring more explicit content was released online on February 5, 2010. In the lead-up to its release, the film received widespread promotional exposure, including prominent advertising during NBC’s coverage of the 2010 Winter Olympic Games.

Theatrical

Cop Out was released theatrically in the United States on February 26, 2010, by Warner Bros. Pictures.

Home media

Warner Bros. announced the film’s home media release in May 2010, with DVD and Blu-ray editions made available on July 20, 2010. The film debuted as the top-selling DVD in the United States during its release week in July.

Reception

Box office

Cop Out grossed $44.9 million in the United States and Canada, and $7.4 million in other territories, for a worldwide total of $55.4 million, against a production budget of $30 million. The film debuted at number two at the U.S. box office behind Shutter Island, earning $18.2 million during its opening weekend.

Critical response

The film received generally negative reviews from critics. On Rotten Tomatoes, it holds an approval rating of 18% based on 163 reviews, with an average rating of 3.90/10. The website's consensus reads, "Cop Out is a cliched buddy action/comedy that suffers from stale gags and slack pacing." On Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 31 out of 100, based on 35 critics, indicating "generally unfavorable reviews." Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "B−" on an A+ to F scale.

Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times awarded the film 1.5 out of 4 stars, stating, "Many of the gags possibly looked good on paper, but watching Willis and Morgan struggle with them is like watching third graders do Noël Coward—if Noël Coward had been rewritten by Kevin Smith." Stephen Whitty of The Star-Ledger, in his review of the similarly themed but more critically acclaimed The Other Guys (2010), remarked, "Measured against this year’s other police farce—remember Cop Out?—it looks absolutely heroic."

Reaction from Kevin Smith

Following the film's negative reviews, director Kevin Smith publicly criticized film critics on Twitter. In one widely reported post, Smith wrote, "Writing a nasty review for Cop Out is akin to bullying a retarded kid. All you've done is make fun of something that wasn't doing you any harm and wanted only to give some cats some fun laughs." He further suggested that critics should be charged for advance screenings of his future films, a statement that drew backlash from film journalists who described the sentiment as "dishonest" and "disingenuous." In response, Roger Ebert tweeted, "Kevin Smith thinks critics should have had to pay to see Cop Out. But Kev, then they would REALLY have hated it."

External links

• Official website
• Cop Out at IMDb
• Cop Out at the TCM Movie Database
• Cop Out at Box Office Mojo
• Cop Out at Metacritic
• Cop Out at Rotten Tomatoes