Let's Be Cops (2014)

Let’s Be Cops is the most recent take on the buddy cop comedy film and tries to be different in just a few ways.  Most of the time these movies have a somehow mismatched duo of police officers or detectives who get involved in some intense crime scheme that they have to go out of their way to get to the bottom of.  Let’s Be Cops is pretty much exactly that only here they aren’t actually real cops… they’re two guys who are basically sick of their lives who decide to pretend to be cops.  I think the idea has some merit to it but unfortunately I found the entire movie to be largely void of laughs and how it goes about getting the pair into police uniforms is borderline infuriating.  While Let’s Be Cops does have a few funny moments and clever gags I found myself bored and frustrated most of the time instead of entertained.

I already sort of explained what this movie is about (if you’ve seen one movie like this you’ve pretty much seen them all) but a few more details will help explain why this didn’t really work for me.  Ryan and Justin are two guys in their early 30s who realize they haven’t turned out how they thought they would.  One of them was an aspiring football player who had an injury that crushed his dream and the other works at video game developing company that doesn’t respect him or his ideas.  After going to a college reunion in police uniforms (it’s a costume party) they realize how unhappy they are and on their walk home realize people think they are actually cops.  They are attracted to the attention it brings them as well as the power and before too long they’re going around abusing this false power and getting into all sorts of shenanigans to live the life they wish they had.  Unfortunately this entire premise is too goofy and ridiculous to be believable in any way.  Not even in a “so ridiculous it’s funny” type of way does this work.  I just found it annoying that guys who are played as semi-intelligent would go down such an idiotic path OR that anybody with 1/10th of a brain would actually think they are cops.  It gets more ridiculous as the film goes along as well.

Ultimately none of the story works for me and how it plays out never fully caught my attention.  Half of the movie is them screwing around, drinking, doing drugs and not getting in trouble just because they’re “cops” (even real cops think they’re cops).  The second half introduces a plot involving an underground crime syndicate that they get involved in.  There is a scene near the end of the film where things get a bit more serious and I was sort of surprised with how intense it got but unfortunately that doesn’t last very long.  I think the entire ordeal just felt sort of tired and there wasn’t enough funny dialogue or clever gags to keep me interested in how absurd the whole situation is.  So basically I laughed 6 or 7 times this entire movie (which is not enough for a “comedy”) and the more serious plot of the movie seemed watered down and cliche.  It never worked for me, which is a bummer because I really thought the previews made this look funny and thought such an outrageous concept could be played for a lot of laughs (and I like most of the people in the film).

Still, I don’t think that Let’s Be Cops is completely horrible film.  I have certainly seen a lot worse and it could have taken some of the humor in a more tasteless direction.  There wasn’t anything overly raunchy or pushy about the humor and for the most part it is a pretty basic buddy comedy with fairly crude dialogue.  If the movie had been poorly acted (which it isn’t, I think the leads here did their best) or tried to push incredibly edgy humor in my face I probably would have been a lot less entertained.  For most of the movie I was along for the ride but only as a passenger in the backseat who occasionally had something to say to the driver (yes, metaphor intended).  In recent months stories about police violence that is racially-oriented has been a hot topic in real life and Let’s Be Cops could have been very tasteless in referencing a situation like that.  Luckily most of the humor is harmless.  Unfortunately most of it doesn’t work for me (so maybe they should have tried something else?… maybe).  It’s important to note that just because I didn’t think this movie was funny that a lot of other people won’t.  Comedy is probably the most subjective of genres and I can see a lot of people really having fun here… just not me.

I was let down with Let’s Be Cops.  I was expecting a fun buddy cop movie with plenty of chuckles and half-clever story.  Instead what I got was an absolutely ludicrous plot that never once tried to be convincing despite playing the premise entirely straight.  I was hoping to laugh a lot more than I did as well.  Most of the humor simply didn’t work for me and as a result I was bored through the majority of the movie.  Every cliche of a buddy cop movie is here only with the added twist that they aren’t actually cops.  Luckily the actors tried their hardest with the material and seemed to be having fun.  I’ve seen much worse movies and far more offensively unfunny comedies before, so I guess that’s a plus.  I can’t really recommend this unless you’re totally prepared for how dumb it really is especially since “I’ve seen worse” isn’t exactly praise.  I just hope more of the comedy works for you than it did for me.

3.5/10