Cop Out (originally A Couple of Dicks) is 2010 American action comedy film directed by Kevin Smith, written by brothers Mark and Robb Cullen, and starring Bruce Willis and Tracy Morgan. The plot revolves around two longtime NYPD partners (portrayed by Willis and Morgan) on the trail of a stolen, rare, mint-condition baseball card who find themselves up against a merciless, memorabilia-obsessed violent gangster. This is the first film that Smith directed for which he did not write the screenplay.

Plot[link]

James "Jimmy" Monroe and Paul Hodges (Bruce Willis and Tracy Morgan) are cops working for the NYPD who celebrated their ninth year together as partners. After failing to capture suspect Juan Diaz (Cory Fernandez) and for causing a disastrous neighborhood shootout and beating up a child, Jimmy and Paul are suspended without pay. Jimmy's daughter Ava (Michelle Trachtenberg) is getting married, and the price for the wedding is close to fifty thousand dollars. Though his ex-wife Pam's second husband Roy (Jason Lee) offers to pay for the wedding, Jimmy is determined to find a way to come up with the money so that Roy will not humiliate him. Paul is worried that his wife Debbie (Rashida Jones) is cheating on him, so he sets up a secret video camera in a teddy bear. While Jimmy is selling a 1952 Andy Pafko baseball card to pay for the wedding, he is robbed by Dave (Seann William Scott), who steals his card and Paul's favorite gun. They find out that Dave is going to rob a house that night so they stake out the house to retrieve the card and gun. Jimmy and Paul arrest Dave and discover he has sold the card and gun for drugs.

Jimmy and Paul go to the dealer, Poh Boy (Guillermo Díaz), who tells them they may have the card if they retrieve a stolen car. When they find the car, they discover a distressed woman named Gabriela (Ana de la Reguera) in the trunk. Gabriela reveals that she is the mistress of a murdered drug lord who was kidnapped by Poh Boy's gang. Jimmy previews the tape from Paul's hidden camera and finds what looks to be Debbie and another man, but tells Paul there is nothing on it. Paul then sees the tape from his hidden camera and is heartbroken when he sees that Jimmy has lied: Debbie is with another man in their bedroom. Gabriela does not want to get Jimmy and Paul hurt, so she flees, leaving them a flashdrive concealed in a cross, which contains information about dealer's contact numbers. Jimmy and Paul pay Dave's bail so that he may retrieve the card and gun but he falls out of a tree and dies. Jimmy goes in to retrieve the card, but is surrounded by the gang. At the same time, Paul learns that Debbie is not cheating on him after all: she has played a trick on him for hiding the camera in their bedroom. After killing most of the gang, Jimmy and Paul find Poh Boy holding Gabriela at gunpoint. They shoot him dead, but Paul's bullet goes through the head of the baseball player on Jimmy's card, which is hidden in Poh Boy's shirt pocket. Pleased with the duo's investigation and assisting two colleagues (Adam Brody and Kevin Pollak) who were caught in the shootout, the precinct chief (Sean Cullen) restores Jimmy and Paul to active duty and gives them commendations.

Dejected at the destruction of his prized card, Jimmy lets Roy pay for the wedding. Pam asks a favor of Jimmy that he and Roy give away Ava together. Jimmy says nothing about it. Paul discreetly points his pistol at Roy and orders him to sit down at the moment the priest calls out the father who would give away Ava. During the closing credits, bonus scenes finds Dave did not die in the fall when he pulls a prank on the coroner opening the body bag by doing one of his knock-knock jokes.

Cast[link]

• Bruce Willis as Detective James "Jimmy" Monroe
• Tracy Morgan as Detective Paul Hodges
• Kevin Pollak as Hunsaker
• Seann William Scott as Dave
• Sean Cullen as Captain Jack Romans
• Jason Lee as Roy
• Rashida Jones as Debbie Hodges
• Adam Brody as Barry Mangold
• Guillermo Diaz as Poh Boy
• Cory Fernandez as Juan Diaz
• Michelle Trachtenberg as Ava Monroe
• Ana de la Reguera as Gabriela
• Jim Norton as George
• Fred Armisen as Russian Lawyer
• Hannah Ware as Mrs. Armisen
• Susie Essman as Laura
• Mark Consuelos as Manuel
• Ernest O'Donnell as Masked Man #1
• Jayce Bartok as Eddie
• Larissa Drekonja as the "Hourly Housekeeper"
• Francie Swift as Pam
• Sarah Burns as the coroner (uncredited)

Production[link]

In March 2009 it was announced that Kevin Smith signed on to direct a buddy-cop comedy starring Bruce Willis and Tracy Morgan (both of whom Smith had worked with on previous projects) titled A Couple of Dicks and written by the Cullen Brothers. It was the first feature film Smith directed but did not write.^[4][5] Prior to principal photography, Variety reported^[6] that the title had been changed to A Couple of Cops due to controversy surrounding the original one.^[7] After negative reaction to the change, Warner Bros. recanted the story and reverted to the original title,^[8] though Smith denies that the original change was requested by the studio.^[6] In December 2009, the studio changed the title from A Couple of Cops to Cop Out.^[9] According to Smith, this title was inspired by his offhandedly complaining to a producer that calling the film A Couple of Cops would be a "cop out;" he embraced this title as it was both reminiscent of titles of 1980's buddy cop films and alluded to his frustration over the name change.^[10] While promoting the film on The Late Show with David Letterman, Willis joked that, in addition to A Couple of Dicks, the movie had at one point gone by the also-rejected title of Cop Suckers.

On December 9, 2009, Kevin Smith announced via his Twitter page that the film would indeed go by the new title.^[11][12] He also stated that the first trailer for this film would be attached to every copy of Sherlock Holmes when it hits theaters on Christmas day.^[13] At the time, Smith acknowledged that the film is "not MY movie, [it's] a movie I was hired to direct."^[14][15]

The studio requested Smith to storyboard the entire film; Smith agreed, and he and Dave Klein, the director of photography, reviewed the results with Warner Bros. two months in advance.^[6] Filming began on June 2, 2009 in New York City and finished on August 14, 2009,^[16] for a February 26, 2010 release.

Ultimately, Cop Out cost Warner studios $37 million to produce.^[2]

Marketing[link]

The first trailer for the film was released on December 23, 2009 and then attached to Sherlock Holmes.^[17] A red band trailer was also released on February 5, 2010. The film was also advertised extensively in the United States during NBC's coverage of the 2010 Winter Olympic Games.

Box office[link]

The film opened #2 behind Shutter Island,^[18] earning $18,211,126 on its opening weekend.^[3] As of May 20, 2010 Cop Out has earned $44,875,481 at the domestic box office and $7,338,581 overseas giving it a worldwide total of $55,439,786.^[3]

Critical reception[link]

The film was panned by critics and received overwhelmingly negative reviews, representing Smith's worst rated film by critics to date. Review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes labeled the film "rotten", reporting that only 19% of critics nationwide have given the film a positive review based on 154 reviews, with an average score of 3.8/10.^[19] Critical consensus is: "Cop Out is a cliched buddy action/comedy that suffers from stale gags, slack pacing and textbook editing".^[19] Review aggregate Metacritic gave the film an average score of 31 out of 100 based on 34 reviews.^[20] Some critics praised the Will Ferrell and Mark Wahlberg film The Other Guys, released the same year, as the best comedy police film of the year against the critically panned Cop Out, with Richard Roeper stating, "Note to Kevin Smith: THIS is how you do a spoof of the buddy-cop genre,"^[21] and Stephen Whitty of The Star-Ledger said in his mixed review, "Measured against this year’s other police farce – remember Cop Out? – it looks absolutely heroic."^[22]

Controversy[link]

A source close to the project reported terrible conflicts on set between Smith and Bruce Willis, "[Smith] smokes way too much pot," a talent representative with a connection to the project says. "He sat behind his monitor. He didn't interact with the actors. The actors felt they were on their own."^[23] Smith defended his use of marijuana while working, claiming "I dealt with every actor who wanted to be dealt with on that set" and pointed to the amount of projects he worked on while making Cop Out to counter claims he was unproductive because of marijuana.^[24] Smith admitted in an interview that heavy pot-smoking had become an integral part of his work ethic after claiming that he watched actor Seth Rogen on the set of Zack and Miri Make a Porno use marijuana as a tool to become a more creative and productive worker, saying "The moment I start smoking, I start working. ... That way, no one could ever take it away from you."^[25]

In response to the critical drubbing the film received, Kevin Smith lashed out at the community of film critics on his Twitter account saying, "Writing a nasty review for Cop Out is akin to bullying a retarded kid. All you've done is make fun of something that wasn't doing you any harm and wanted only to give some cats some fun laughs."^[27][28] Smith also implied on Twitter that he may charge critics for advance screenings of his films, a service which has typically been provided free; this subsequently ignited a strong response from some critics condemning his stance as "dishonest" and "disingenuous".^[27]

Home video[link]

In May 2010, DVD and Blu-ray Disc editions of the film were announced for release on July 20, 2010.^[29] In July, Cop Out was the #1 selling DVD in the US.^[30]

References[link]

External links[link]

Official

• Official website

Database

• Cop Out at the Internet Movie Database
• Cop Out at AllRovi
• Cop Out at Box Office Mojo
• Cop Out at Metacritic
• Cop Out at Rotten Tomatoes

Look up cop out, copout, copped out, copping out, or cops out in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

Cop out or cop-out may refer to:

• Cop-Out (play), a 1969 Broadway play starring Linda Lavin
• Cop-Out (video game), a 1986 video game by Raffaele Cecco
• Cop Out, a 1969 book by Ellery Queen
• Cop Out, a 1999 biography about the rugby 1981 Springbok Tour by Glenn Wood

Film and television[link]

• Cop Out (2010 film), a comedy film directed by Kevin Smith and starring Bruce Willis, Tracy Morgan and Kevin Pollak
• Cop-Out, the American title for the 1967 UK film Stranger in the House
• "Cop-Out", a 1998 episode of Martial Law

Music[link]

• "Cop Out", a song on the 1969 film Naked Angels
• "Cop Out", a song by Peter Hope and Richard H. Kirk on the 1994 album Black Box – Wax Trax! Records: The First 13 Years
• Copout (band), a 1990s punk band made up of members who later went on to Warcry, His Hero Is Gone, Talk Is Poison
• "Cop Out", a song on the 2001 album Caught Off Guard by Much the Same
• "Cop Out", a song on the 2000 album Shorter, Faster, Louder by Kid Dynamite

See also[link]

• Cop (disambiguation)
• Out (disambiguation)
• Weasel word

This disambiguation page lists articles associated with the same title. If an internal link led you here, you may wish to change the link to point directly to the intended article.