Soyons flics

Ryan and Justin, both are at a point in life when nothing seems to be working. Ryan is a former college football star and seems he can't get a break in Hollywood. Justin is a video game designer and can't get his cop game off the ground. One day on their way to a costume party, they discover that dressing like cops give them the respect and attention they crave. This leads to a path to acting like cops and being part of the LA police force. All is fun in games until they cross a real life gangster and discover that being a cop is not as easy as in the movies. A funny movie and also amazing how Damon Wayans, Jr. looks and acts like his daddy. Funny and a good story, Let's be Cops is a peek inside the police world.

Don't be fooled by the sophomoric title which conjures up images of idiots pretending to be cops to pick up chicks, get free things and otherwise act like fools in uniform…wait, that is what happens in this film. Still don't be fooled by the title, the movie isn't so much face-palming as it is just mildly and reliably silly.

The movie stars Jake Johnson of New Girl (2011-2014) fame as a burned out former college sports prodigy who's currently unemployed and single in sunny Los Angeles. His roommate Damon Wayans Jr. is a video game designer who struggles to bring his ideas to life thanks to a petrifying fear of taking initiative. His new game pitch involves a Grand Theft Auto-type RPG boasting an authentic beat cop experience. So authentic in fact, that he borrows real police uniforms to place on his presentation mannequins. His boss doesn't go for it but at least the two can become a hit at a costume party, thus beginning a ruse that grabs the attention of the ladies, the criminals and the LAPD.

The film adds very little to the buddy cop genre save a realistic performance by Rob Riggle as a legit Police officer. The villains are serviceable in menace and acting ability while love interest Nina Dobrev of the ever popular Degrassi: The Next Generation (2006-2009) is breathtaking T&A. The notion of Dobrev's character aspiring to be a makeup artist and not an actress or model is about as silly as Fred Astaire aspiring to be a shoe-shiner. Try as they might the chemistry between the two leads is cordial but no where near the level of Murtaugh and Briggs, Cates and Hammond, Lee and Carter. At best they're Freebie and the Bean (1974) without the pretense of already being A-List stars.

But let's be real, this film isn't trying to be the next Rush Hour (1998), and yes that is the new marker of quality. It's a movie that tries to reassemble the old Blockbuster video crowd who rented Martin Lawrence's National Security (2003) and All About the Benjamins (2002) a hundred times because old habits die hard and The Marine (2006) was already rented out. While Johnson and Wayans Jr. may not have the established fan base of Martin Lawrence or Ice Cube, there's no denying the films refreshing lack of pretense and the actors' enthusiasm towards the one-trick pony screenplay.

Let's cut the BS, what it all comes down to in movies like this is can it make you laugh? The short answer is yes and not just scattered chuckles either. Is it worth a re-watch; probably not. There are some truly inspired moments many of which are provided by Keegan-Michael Key (If Key and Jordan Peele were cast as the hapless fake cops instead of Johnson and Wayans who knows how deliciously absurd this movie could have gotten). Yet the buddy-banter all feels recycled and the action sequences are mundane.

I tacitly approve even if Let's Be Cops appeared too late on the scene to be relevant. Those who are limitedly exposed to the clichés of boys-in-blue-type cinema will find something to like, especially when their parents aren't in the room. Those with more discerning taste might want to look the other way on this one, not because it's offensive, dumb or bad but because it's too little of anything.

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Everyone has played cops and robbers at some point. This is the most basic of imagination games a child could play not matter what part of the world or even time period they came from. It about the thrill of chasing the bad guy or being the bad guy and trying to evade the good guys. You could stage a robbery or stop a kidnapping, but this is something I could easily believe every one has done. But like most growing people, these games end as adults decide to start playing with something that truly interests them and make a career out of it.

But sometimes the cops and robbers game is fun enough that the adult wants this to become their life. They'll ask for information on what the next step is to becoming a real life officer. Either they'll be scared away from the complicated paperwork and academy, denied because of something they have or done, or they possess the will to go through with it and make it a career. But you occasionally hear about those bad apples that think its funny to impersonate an officer. Like the characters in Let's Be Cops, their most likely stupid and don't think about the consequences on the people they fool.

Justin (played by Damon Wayans, Jr.) and Ryan (played by Jake Johnson) are two best friends that have lived in Los Angeles hoping that their lives here would be better then in Ohio. This is not the case as Justin is a video game designer whose more of an assistant then a creative mind and Ryan is a bum friend whose football days are long behind him and living off of a commercial payday that has kept him stable. They head out to a college reunion as cops thinking it's a costume party. Not only is it a masquerade party instead, but they have a hard time fitting in with their more successful classmates.

Just as they decide they might go back to Ohio, they discover something on the city streets; people are giving them double takes, the tallest of men start to slouch and the hottest of women give them smiles. The two quickly realize that people think that their cops. Ryan wants to play around with this more, now getting the respect that he's wanted after college, though Justin is more of a weak coward whose more concerned with going to prison. The two eventually get good enough to deceive the L.A.P.D. and start doing detective work for a Russian mafia.

Every summer there's a movie that I'm gonna find is a surprise that I didn't expect; Let's Be Cops is the surprise. It was a movie I remember laughing at even though a lot of the gags were stupid, reminding me of something like Surf Ninjas. But…I kind of like Surf Ninjas. So why am I forgiving here and not of something like Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles that was full of dumb jokes?

First of all, the jokes feel like timeless jokes, as to say that they didn't rely on modern day or pop culture things that could be dated in a few years. Second, the characters are likable. Both Justin and Ryan feel like those recent college buddies that still need to find better interests, but they put so much passion in what their doing that you really want to see where they go with this. Third, I feel like that the movie is in on the whole joke of cop clichès and that most of the jokes, especially the jokes that aren't funny, are intentional.

I'll give this seven fake police badges out of ten. Let's Be Cops is that comedy that will become a hit on television through repeated viewings at midnight with teenagers and college students. I can't say it's for everyone, but this is something you need to turn off your logical brain to enjoy.

Upon its release, Let's Be Cops got negative reviews. It wasn't panned, people and critics just said it simply wasn't good. There is a group of people that loved this. Many cult classics were hated at first, then eventually get a fan base. I am part of that fan base.

What people really need to know about Let's Be Cops is that it's not a dim-witted comedy. Dim- witted comedies are like Strange Wilderness, Brothers Soloman, and Dude, Where's My Car? Those are plagued with dumb characters and a lack of intelligence and heart. Jake Johnson and Damon Wayans Jr. are the main characters who are much smarter than the average dim-witted character. Johnson is pretty close, but not quite. I will admit this movie isn't very funny, nor funny as a typical dim-witted comedy. Perhaps it would have been funnier if it had more dim- witted elements and characters. Perhaps not.

Let's Be Cops is about two thirty-year-old best friends, Ryan O'Malley and Justin Miller (Johnson, Wayans), who live in Los Angeles for opportunity, but think it's time to go back to Ohio. Justin works at a video game company where he is a big pushover; Ryan doesn't work and and aspires to nothing, just wishing he could play pro-football. When they intercept real police uniforms, they act like real cops, then get involved in a high-profile drug case. The first little bit when they dress up as cops and start acting like them is pretty funny because we all know everybody would try to abuse their privilege. Then the funniness starts to die down, but that is when the brains of the movie come.

What makes Let's Be Cops so appealing that so many people miss is what the police work does to Ryan and Justin. For Ryan, it gives him a sense of enjoyment and pride which he hasn't had in a long time. For Justin, it gives him confidence and helps with his assertiveness. That is what the movie is all about: finding your true self. Is the movie unrealistic and silly? Of course, but that's what makes it a nice watch. Two losers put on police outfits and something changes inside themselves. They find the respect they've always longed for.

3/4

When I saw the trailer I was reluctant about seeing this movie. I was afraid it was a standard popular American comedy in which absurdity-comedy was the focus, like most stand-up comedians and Southpark. The movie does include these kind of jokes, but because of the sequence of jokes and the "story" (as in standard rom-com "story") I found the movie to be very funny. But then again it is difficult to make a movie which everybody thinks is funny, for example I think the Achorman 1 was the most hilarious movie ever but the sequel I thought was terrible. So I think you will either love or hate this movie depending on your sense of humor.