With great power comes great comedy. Well, sometimes. Writers have spent the
history of film mining the concept of people without any discernible skill
sets turned into figures of authority. And the last few years
have seen a lot of comedy mileage in the subgenre of man-children broken out of
their doldrums by living lives distinctly not their own (that was the draw of “The
Hangover” and “Jump Street” movies—normal guys in abnormal situations). Into
both of these comedy pools, we can now throw “Let’s Be Cops,” with TV stars
Jake Johnson and Damon Wayans Jr. (both of FOX’s “New Girl”) as a pair of
average guys thrust into a life-changing dynamic when they pretend to be police
officers.
The best of these movies contain enough edge to be
cautionary tales. Don’t be the party animals of “The Hangover” every weekend or
risk great bodily harm. The grass on the other side of the fence isn’t just a
duller shade of green than we first expect but it’s laced with poison. There’s no poison here. Despite
a premise rife with potential dark humor, there’s too little edge in “Let’s Be
Cops.” Director/co-writer Luke Greenfield chose wacky over witty and the result
is a film with no sense of danger, no reason to care and not enough laughs to
make the sitcomish handling of a strong premise forgivable.
Ryan (Johnson) is a mostly out-of-work actor whose most
infamous credit is a commercial for STD medication. He’s not in a very good
place. Neither is Justin (Wayans), a video game developer who doesn’t quite
have the spine to stand up to his annoying boss (Jon Lajoie), who takes his
hard work on a game about a police officer and turns it into Firefighters vs.
Zombies. To research that game, Justin came into possession of a pair of legitimate
police officer uniforms, and Ryan convinces his more uptight buddy that they
should use them to attend a costume party reunion (that turns out to be more of
a masquerade ball, further embarrassing our heroes). Dejected after the reunion
reminds them of their recent failures, Ryan and Justin are walking the streets
of L.A. when they realize that the uniform commands a certain kind of respect
and admiration from the ladies. Why not be cops a little longer?
Well, because it’s highly illegal and incredibly dangerous,
of course. Justin realizes this and tries to put a stop to it but Ryan becomes relatively
unhinged, buying a cop car on eBay and pulling people over. And the pair even
gets involved in a real case involving the gorgeous daughter of a restaurant
owner (Nina Dobrev), who becomes a love interest for Justin, and a maniacal
gang leader played with physical fury by James D’ Arcy. Rob Riggle pops up as a real
cop who crosses paths with the two while Keegan Michael Key steals a few scenes
as an over-the-top dealer.
Those early montages of Johnson and Wayans breaking out of
their shells by donning the outfits that give them the confidence to do so have
a great comedic energy. These are two talented actors, and it looks like “Let’s
Be Cops” is going to give them a chance to really find an audience they
deserve with a breakout film. And then the film goes absolutely nowhere. To say that “Let’s Be Cops” spins
its wheels tonally would be kind. “Paul Blart: Mall Cop” had more edge. The cops of “Superbad” had more edge. Whereas
Johnson seems ready to do something truly dark—his character’s increasing willingness
to push his false authority could have and should have sent this piece into “Observe
and Report” levels of black humor—his writer/director doesn’t seem to want to
go with him. Like so many sitcoms or Adam Sandler movies, “Let’s Be Cops” doesn’t
take place in the real world. It’s a comedy universe without danger or repercussions.
Worst of all, it simply doesn’t have the laughs to make the zany approach feel like the right one. Don’t be edgy, fine. But at
least be funny.
Source: http://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/lets-be-cops-2014
