REVIEW OF LET'S BE COPS

year: 2014 rating: **

There are buddy movies, and there are buddy cop movies…  Buddy movies center on two opposing friends who can’t do without each other, while buddy cop movies usually have a white guy partnered up with a black guy... And here, both sub-genres collide…

LET’S BE COPS starts with two likable 30 year old losers discussing a pact to leave Los Angeles if their dreams haven't materialized. But Jake Johnson’s Ryan, a has-been football player and the most optimistic of the duo, wants to stay put while the pessimistically neurotic Justin, played by Damon Wayans Jr., thinks it’s time to split.

Ryan doesn’t only know how to party, but he’s completely aware of the movie’s title and premise. And since Justin works at a software company, trying to get his cop videogame green-lit, he happens to have two uniforms and, long story short, the boys wind up donning the attire for a masquerade party, right down to bulletproof vests.

The Teamup

Soon enough they're mistaken as actual cops and treated like kings. The ruse sticks, and the partners hit the streets, winding up with a real cop car... and the laughs have just begun!

Well not exactly. The second part of the tagline: Fake Cops, Real Trouble  causes the potentially hilarious premise to be sidelined by a group of villains led by a nefarious tattooed thug straight out of… something not very humorous…

So while Johnson and Wayans have the right amount of Oscar/Felix chemistry, there’s simply too much of the violently dramatic aspect far too soon, turning these fake COPS into actual crime fighters whose only problem is staying alive as opposed to remaining funny. Thanks to the vicious bad guy, Justin's perpetual whining, and an overlong scene involving a dreadlocked gangster, the promotional trailers pack more belly-laughs than the actual movie.