Space Cop (Jay Bauman & Mike Stoklasa, 2016) Review

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“Ugh, he'll be fine. I accidentally set my gun to stun.” Years in-the-making by a band of fan favourite B-movie reviewers from the Internet, sci-fi comedy Space Cop has turned into something of a punching bag by its own creators, but is that a fair assessment?...

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“You just killed thousands of people!” // “You're welcome.” The place: Milwaukee, Wisconsin. The year: 2058. The protagonist: Space Cop. He's a low-volume gruff-talkin' rogue law enforcement officer from the future, the future of space, who's out-of-control as he plays fast and loose with how he dispenses justice – with all the rampant property damage such a loose cannon approach entails.

“Cop from the past, meet cop from the future.” Having saved the Mayor of the Moon from a hostage situation, which resulted in an entire moon base exploding, Space Cop (Rich Evans, Frankie Freako) is 'promoted' to Space Traffic Cop in an attempt to curb his destructive ways. However, chasing a runaway craft with reckless abandon, he suddenly finds himself transported into the past, the past of Earth, into the year 2007. Eight years later Space Cop, still trapped in time, is now working for the Milwaukee Police Department of the past – only now he is even lazier and sloppier in his work ethic, much to the raging chagrin of his Tums-popping boss, Chief Washington (Dale Jackson).

“You bastards slightly injured my partner. Now it's personal.” Responding to a break-in at a Cryogenics Laboratory, Space Cop encounters a band of criminals who steal a brain from one of the freezers. In the ensuing (and entirely inevitable) chaos, a cop from the 1940s – Detective Ted Cooper (Mike Stoklasa) – is accidentally unfrozen. Teamed-up on a case involving mysterious thefts of gold through the use of some futuristic device, these two rogue (and bumbling) officers of the peace must get to the bottom of it before a world-ending catastrophe can unfold!

“You're the only cop I know who's allowed people to get killed after they're already dead!” Those familiar with YouTube movie reviewers Red Letter Media's style of humour will have a leg-up when entering into this low budget, but admirably produced, sci-fi comedy. Rampant over-acting, lengthy awkward pauses, and destructive interludes are all welcome familiarities, meanwhile keen-eyed and eared viewers will be rewarded with numerous in-jokes: the broken pottery sound effect, appearances from RLM regulars like Tim Higgins (who plays the Moon Mayor and a Bartender), and jokes about Grigg's height and beard (in reference to similarly humorous aspersions cast towards RLM co-founder Jay Bauman).

“You can't fucking smoke in a police station, is this real life?!” Despite it's low budget and long-winded production, Space Cop is still beguiling in its creative visual approach. Leaning into the style of the micro-budget genre movies that Stoklasa, Bauman, and Evans are well-known for reviewing in their video series 'Best of the Worst', there is a deliberateness underpinning the use of blatant model shots and various other special effects (such as the flying Crown Vic police car with rocket boosters), which all nonetheless carry with them a sense of charm. Managing to sidestep the pitfalls of all those Sharknado type flicks (which try to be 'so bad they're good' movies, and thus miss the entire point), Space Cop is a knowing but reverential send-up of cop movie clichés: the angry black police chief, the cop with a tragic backstory who is circling suspension, and so on, while also pulling off some genuinely funny gags along the way, such as Ted Cooper's continual befuddlement at what is 'futuristic' tech to him but what is actually extremely out-of-date in the world of 2016.

Similarly, Cooper's struggles to navigate the future world (to him) provides plenty of chuckles, but one can't help but feel that more opportunities for culture clash buddy cop hilarity were left on the table. The set-up of a future cop stuck in the past working a case with a old timey cop stuck in the future is filled with possibilities, but it feels as if Space Cop can't quite manage to squeeze all the juice from it.

“God, I miss her so much … so how about that titty bar?” Further to this, the film touches on some personal dramas for each character, but the readiness to drop anything even remotely sincere in favour of any number of ways to undercut the moment can sometimes be to the movie's detriment. A few snatches of genuine character drama wouldn't have gone amiss, but perhaps this is partly a result of the drawn-out production of the film itself. Indeed, Space Cop suffers from some storytelling problems in terms of both structure and characterisation, while it also battles to streamline its narrative and deploy its main villain.

Joe Bob Briggs of The Last Drive-In might well say that 'there is too much plot getting in the way of the story', and this increasingly seems to be the case as the second half of the movie gets underway. The film can't quite juggle its various bad guy underlings – Grigg (Bauman), Zorba (Jocelyn Ridgely), and Agnon (Chike Johnson) – as well as a whole subplot involving the theft of gold, before things get fairly convoluted as villainous scientists, doomsday devices, and duplicity all get thrown into a lazer-blasting climax of chaos. As a result, the narrative can feel a little fractured and glued back together again, riddled as it is with aforementioned undercuts, which hit as often as they miss.

“Ow! Fuck my balls!” However, despite the film's hectic storytelling issues, Space Cop boasts a considerable amount of blood, sweat, and tears that have gone into its production. Indeed, there is certainly a great amount of skill and invention behind-the-scenes, all the more impressive considering the low budget. The film looks good, extracts plenty of humour from the scenario, and doesn't overstay its welcome (unlike 2014's ambitious but over-stuffed Angry Video Game Nerd: The Movie).

Considering the film's mixed response, and RLM's own sense of self-deprecation, the team have often times rendered their own creation the butt of a joke while discussing another film in one of their review series, such as 'Half in the Bag' or 're:View'. Their honesty and willingness to take a punch is part of the reason why Red Letter Media has built-up a dedicated fanbase over the years, but despite the film's wobbles, it is a very long way from failure.

It has always been tricky for YouTubers to make the transition to theatrical filmmaking, from the woefully-reviewed succession of squeaky-voiced Fred movies to the fun but over-stretched Dick Figures: The Movie to the broadly entertaining Dude Bro Party Massacre III, but while Space Cop can't always hit the target it still does enough to earn its keep. Established fans of Red Letter Media's output on YouTube will be best suited to viewing Space Cop, and so it might not succeed as much with those outside the bubble, but it's a handsome endeavour that never allows itself to dawdle and is always on the lookout for some action or comedy to throw into the mix at any given moment.