Monday 24 May 2010

Cop Out...

Limping into UK cinemas long after its February premiere across the pond, us Brits finally got our mits on Kevin Smith's latest offering (albeit he wasn't the writer, just the director). I have to say I was a bit disappointed by it ... there was an air of 'most of the best bits are in the red band trailer' about it, which is a shame, but then again there are a range of other jokes that serve you well throughout (the monocle gag really tickled out funny bone).

Plot-wise though, the film feels a bit threadbare. Side characters are more often than not relegated to two or (if they're lucky) three minor scenes, and the central conceit (a baseball card) feels a bit flimsy.

I enjoyed myself, don't get me wrong, but Cop Out felt like it was cut-short. The script felt it had been forcedly diluted, and the running time felt like it had been forcedly trimmed and trimmed and trimmed. A couple less side characters, a stronger central conceit, and a few more full-on guffaws would have been really nice and taken everything up a couple of notches.

Seeing Cop Out was a fun time, especially on a sweltering Sunday (providing us with much needed darkness and air conditioning), and I'll naturally check it out again ... it's just that it felt like a light snack rather than a full meal. In terms of Kevin Smith's career it's a good step up on the ladder, he's been able to try out new things and new territory and direct a feature script that wasn't his own ... but I do wonder about what the movie would have been like if Smith himself had penned it.

A good time, but sadly not great.

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