Tuesday’s Top Trailer: Cop Out

Welcome to a new weekly feature here at Movies with Abe, Tuesday's Top Trailer. One of my favorite parts about going to see movies is the series of trailers that airs beforehand and, more often than not, the trailer is far better than the actual film. Each week, I'll be sharing a trailer I've recently seen. Please chime in with comments on what you think of the trailer and how you think the movie is going to be.

Cop Out – Opening February 26, 2010



This trailer aired before “Sherlock Holmes,” and I found myself going back to watch it again online out of my own free will. There are many reasons to think that this movie might be terrible. The first is its release date – movies that come out during the first few months of the year that aren’t spillover from the end of the previous year tend to be really bad. This kind of movie has turned out really poorly in the past, evidenced most recently (at least in a film that I’ve seen) with “Showtime,” starring Robert DeNiro and Eddie Murphy, which was unbearable. On to the stars – Tracy Morgan is on comedy smash “30 Rock,” but he’s the least stable part of the series and generally just a crazy person in real life. Bruce Willis hasn’t made many good movies recently, and he’s made some pretty awful ones in the time since he’s done anything positive. But then there’s the flip side to it all. Morgan actually is hilarious, and his completely insanity and unfettered craziness works marvelously for him. Willis’ reaction to his announcement that he’s going undercover is probably similar to that of audiences, but it should still make for a wildly entertaining ride. And Willis is actually great at fusing endless sarcasm with high-octane action scenes. He may have been a bit more serious in the best, most notably in the first three “Die Hard” films, but the fourth entry in the series, “Live Free or Die Hard,” demonstrated that, as he has aged, his characters seem to have become more impatient but equally more enjoyable. He’s especially on when he has a dopey sidekick to use as a punching back or roll his eyes at repeatedly. Most importantly, this movie actually does look funny. Morgan is over the top, and Seann William Scott is unarguably obnoxious, but this could be a recipe for mediocre to great comedy. Having Kevin Smith as the director is certainly a plus, and could place this comedy well above par. It could be terrible, but it could also be funny. And in the first half of the year, there’s not much else to hope for.