In case you hadn’t noticed, the 80s are back again, specifically 80s style action adventures.
On TV we have the entertaining Miami based romp ‘Burn Notice’, in which an ex-spy helps out people with problems, ‘MacGyver’ style with only his tubby best friend and ex IRA girlfriend (don’t ask) for help. In the cinema, there’s a new version of ‘The A-Team’ out in July and the ‘A-Team’ style action film ‘The Losers’ is released next week.
Kevin Smith’s new film ‘Cop Out’ is a love letter to 1980s comedy/action films, in particular ‘Beverly Hills Cop’ and ‘Fletch’, to the extent that the score of the film is by Harold Faltermeyer, creating a pastiche of his own back catalogue before segueing into the actual ‘Fletch’ theme over the end credits.
If the last paragraph meant nothing to you, then ‘Cop Out’ probably won’t be your cup of tea, as while it’s an enjoyable film, it’s also nostalgic for a simpler time when movie cops could just hang out with their fictional buddies and laconically breeze their way through shaggy dog story plots.
In making a twenty-first century update of this time and type of film making, Smith is pretty successful and this film shows his confident maturation as a director. ‘Cop Out’ is no ‘Heat’, certainly, and continues the slacker/stoner aesthetic of the director’s career so far, but in his previous films he was also responsible for the script and allowed his trademark witty and outrageous dialogue carry the films with direction sometimes being somewhat perfunctory.
This is not to say his films were previously unenjoyable as Smith penned some of the funniest dialogue of the 1990s, but I’d be hard pressed to recall any visually memorable scenes outside of angel based mayhem in ‘Dogma’ and cameos by Mark Hamill and a monkey in ‘Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back’.
With ‘Cop-Out’ however, without his own script to fall back on, the director allows himself to use the language of film more effectively than ever before – appropriately for the subject matter – channeling 80s era John Landis.
In his other career as a raconteur (‘An Evening with…’ etc.) Kevin Smith has told the tale of how he ended up with a cameo and a partial script rewrite on ‘Die Hard 4.0′, and one can imagine him hanging out with Bruce Willis on the set, saying “Dude, remember when your films were good?”
‘Cop Out’ allows Willis to revisit his Moonlighting era laid-back charm, without the mugging to camera that spoiled otherwise underrated films such as ‘Hudson Hawk’ and ‘Death Becomes Her’ in the early 90s.
Before and indeed after Tarantino briefly gave Willis renewed vigour in ‘Pulp Fiction’, the actor was in danger of becoming a caricature of himself (the price of fame, perhaps), but here he is clearly relaxed and enjoying himself on screen for the first time in years, something the audience can appreciate too.
Less successful is Tracy Morgan, who outside of the cult following for ‘30 Rock’ in the UK has yet to have a breakthrough role outside of America. Morgan is yet another ‘Saturday Night Live’ alumnus and reminiscent of the last time Willis was paired with a slightly hysterical comedy foil – Chris Tucker in ‘The Fifth Element’ – is consciously, irritatingly trying to steal the scene in many of the film’s set pieces where the duo are together.
However unlike Tucker, Morgan at least starts to tone down his performance as the film progresses. So, if you find yourself in a cinema, struggling with the first twenty minutes of the film, do persevere as once the plot kicks in, it actually becomes very enjoyable as the mismatched double act careen from one unlikely scenario to another in search of the film’s macguffin: Willis’ stolen baseball card which is worth enough to fund his daughter’s wedding.
Smith’s career is peppered with as many unmade films his fans (and he) would have longed to see as there are entries in his ‘Viewaskewniverse’ saga. Alongside his unrealized superhero films ‘Superman Begins’, ‘Green Hornet’ and ‘Ranger Danger’ is a ‘Fletch’ prequel, ‘Fletch Won’, mired in production hell. This film at least partially realizes the aim of that unmade project, with a role for Smith regular Jason Lee and the aforementioned Faltermeyer on the soundtrack.
In a summer packed with reimaginings and increasingly attention deficient sequels for teenagers with goldfish memory, it’s charming and relaxing to see a film that harks back to more innocent times.
Following Willis’ performance in the risible ‘Die Hard 4.0′, his direction here is the start of the career of Kevin Smith version 2.0 – a more than competent director of other people’s material who will hopefully be able to use this film as a calling card for the more ambitious genre films he’s being longing to do throughout his career.
