‘Let’s Be Cops’ should hand over its badge and gun, reviews say

Movie critics are reading “Let’s Be Cops� the riot act. Although the comedy starring Jake Johnson and Damon Wayans Jr. as a pair of buddy cops who aren’t really cops has a solid premise, reviews say, the dreary script is unfit for duty.

Robert Abele in The Times says that while “there’s an appealing hint of misadventure in a title like ‘Let’s Be Cops,’ as well as in the first few scenes,� that only makes “the rote, slipshod and unfunny rest of the movie all the more dispiriting — like a drug that’s as much fun as precinct paperwork.�

Abele adds that “‘Let’s Be Cops’ is its own movie in disguise: a role-playing romp that’s actually a generic buddy-cop movie.� Johnson and Wayans, for their part, “are likable enough … but the movie relies too much on the same comic tension in each scene: Johnson is the gung-ho one, Wayans Jr. says no (a lot).�

Writing for RogerEbert.com, Brian Tallerico similarly says, “Despite a premise rife with potential dark humor, there’s too little edge in ‘Let’s Be Cops.’ Director/co-writer Luke Greenfield chose wacky over witty and the result is a film with no sense of danger, no reason to care and not enough laughs to make the sitcomish handling of a strong premise forgivable.� Johnson and Wayans “are two talented actors,� but the film “goes absolutely nowhere.�

The Hollywood Reporter’s Frank Scheck calls “Cops� a “witless high-concept comedy� and says it “fails to mine the potentially humorous premise for the necessary laughs, with nearly all of the gags falling thuddingly flat.� Eventually the movie “lurches into action movie territory, complete with the sort of violence and brutality that is tonally at odds with the farcical set-up.�

As for Johnson and Wayans, Scheck says, “While they demonstrate a genuine onscreen chemistry, the lead performers are thoroughly adrift, with Wayans mainly displaying pained expressions throughout and Johnson devolving into unfunny boorish mode.�

The Wrap’s Alonso Duralde agrees that “the premise is simple but full of unfulfilled potential.� And although the cast is “loaded with people who have been hilarious elsewhere,� the script “mires the performers in stale situations, flat characters, and setups that almost never pay off in a satisfying way.�

A few critics are letting “Let’s Be Cops� off with a slap on the wrist. Among them is Variety’s Joe Leydon, who grants that “The mix of raucous buffoonery and violent mayhem isn’t exactly seamless, and the laugh-out-loud moments come with conspicuously less frequency during a third act that suggests a rough draft for ‘Bad Boys 3.’� Still, he says “Cops� offers “sporadically hilarious funny business� and is “relatively restrained by the contemporary standards of R-rated raunch.�

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