Review of Let's Be Cops (2014) by Callum H — 21 Nov 2014

Let's Be Cops provides little more than a semblance of a chuckle every now and again within its elongated and highly awkward one hour and 49 minute long running time. Part the relatively well-formed chemistry between leads Jake Johnson and Damon Wayans Jr, every single minute of Let's Be Cops is formed of something excruciatingly painful to sit through, whether it be generic and plain embarrassing fart or testicle-related humour, a poorly constructed romantic subplot which serves little but to supposedly provide character development for one of the protagonists, or scenes which just last far too long. It's a comedy without any comedy; an event which is painful to sit through.

Whilst not necessarily sinking to the disgustingly low level of the humour that encompasses a film like A Haunted House 2, Let's Be Cops is filled with little hilarity. Whilst the central plot and characters are initally somewhat interesting and funny, their freshness wear out quickly, and what is exposed is a highly cliched and predictable story, filled with betrayals, discoveries and revelations which can be spotted from miles away. The protagonist's character arcs are formed of the same old, tiring direction that we've seen in countless other comedies come before. This is nothing new and innovative.

Director and co-writer Luke Greenfield has an energy and wit about him for the first 15 minutes, providing a spark of spontaneous ingenuity for the opening of this movie; he gives us hope that the film will stay briskly paced and highly funny all throughout. The central premise comes into play, and we're excited to see the primary characters take up their new found roles and exploit this new opportunity. Both Johnson and Wayans Jr handle their roles well, helping to hone what seems, at this point at least, a strong comedy. Unfortunately, after Greenfield tires out the initial concept, he continues to attempt to leech it for everything it's worth, losing the pace and wit of the film along the way. Things veer uncontrollably into boredom, and the rest of the film becomes an absolute slog to get through.

Much of the humour will appeal to a good portion of the adolescent boy crowd who appreciate the Adam Sandler-esque juvenile comedy brand, despite its constant lack of creativity. This a horrible motion picture to watch play out on screen, especially after the potential it displays within its opening segments. Greenfield has an eye for comedy, and understands how to tell an effective joke or two, but held down with a concept that provides little material after its first 15 minutes, he is unable to branch outside the cliched branch of comedy writing. His cinematography, editing, score (by Christophe Beck), lighting; all of it is poorly handled. It contains nothing of particular value, and combined with a screenplay which features little focus and drifts off into all manners of predictability shortly after it begins, Let's Be Cops is a thoroughly disappointing venture for Greenfield; a comedy director who continues to be criticised for his needlessly silly and poorly executed comedy.