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Chevy chase and jack "i'll take any role for the money" palance. When counterfeiters move into the hood, cops jake and tony (palance, gray) move in with the robberson family (chevy chase, diane wiest) to keep an eye on the crooks next door. Unless norm goofs it all up with his stumbling and bumbling. The stuff that made chase's career. It's all very okay. Pretty silly stuff. Really drags in the middle. They kind of ran out of material. Keep an eye out for the cook in the diner..... that's telly savalas' brother. Emmet walsh plays captain corbett. Walsh was hilarious in "what's up doc?". Story by bernie somers. Directed by michael ritchie, who is quoted as saying " i have no interest in directing. I'd be a bad director." and then directed 38 films. One of those was the awesome "fletch", also starring chevy chase!

Norman Robberson (Chevy Chase) is a typical husband and father who lives in the idyllic suburb of Pleasant Valley with his wife Helen (Dianne Wiest) and three kids with young vampire obcessed Billy (Miko Hughes), delinquent middle son Kevin (Jason James Richtor), and teenage daughter Cindy (Fay Masterson). While Norman goes to his mundane office job everyday, Norman often fantasizes about being a cop and has an encyclopedic knowledge of all the cop shows catching them in re-runs and renting episodes from video stores. When the police department learns notorious and violent counterfeiter Horace Osborn (Robert Davi) is hiding out in Pleasant Valley, the department sends gizzled veteran cop Jake Stone (Jack Palance) and his young partner Tony Moore (David Barry Gray) to stakeout the area using Robberson's home as the surveillance point. Norman is excited for the opportunity to get in on the action, but Stone finds himself irritated by Norman's antics.

Cops and Robbersons is a 1994 comedy vehicle for Chevy Chase that was one of the more "family skewing" roles the comedian took in the 90s as Chase's previous films such as Memoirs of an Invisible Man and Nothing but Trouble were underperformers and the market started favoring broader more family orientated comedies popularized by the works of Chris Columbus and John Hughes. Released in April of 1994, the film opened in an unexceptional second place behind sleeper hit Four Weddings and a Funeral in its sixth weekend and eventually closed out its run with $11 million making it financial disappointment. Critical reception was dismal with many making unfavorable comparisons to the film Stakeout and also making unfavorable comparisons between Chase's Norman Robberson and his Clark Griswold character. Cops and Robbersons is the kind of movie where it feels like they started with the title and then crudely tried to build a movie around it.

The movie is comparable to other broad police comedies of the time such as Stakeout, but is more targeted to the same audience that made Kindergarten Cop and to a lesser extent Cop and a Half successful. Cops and Robbersons is better than Cop and a Half by virtue of having better performances and a seemingly smoother production, but it's rather lacking when compared to Kindergarten Cop Chevy Chase is a funhouse mirror exaggeration of his Clark Griswold character as he plays Norm Robberson as so massively thickheaded you wonder how he's able to hold down a job or keep a roof over his head due to his multitude of idiot decisions that are divorced from reality. Chase is always at his best playing characters who fit his wiseass persona such as how Clark Griswold is properly written in Vacation and Christmas Vacation, Fletcher in Fletch or Fletch Lives, or Ty Webb in Caddyshack. The character that Chase plays so doesn't match his talents that it honestly feels like it was more written in mind for someone from a sitcom of the time like Tim Allen from Home Improvement or Ed O'Neill during Married with Children because these are basically sitcom characters doing sitcom things. Jack Palance is doing his usual growling intense performance, but he did give me some laughs such as his explanation to Robert Davi's character that Norm recently underwent a lobotomy (which probably makes more sense than it should) and the lion's share of what few laughs there are in this film mostly come from Palance.

Cops and Robbersons has a talented cast and isn't painful like some comic misfires, but it's also not nearly funny enough to sustain its paper thin premise that relies on the old staple of the "idiot plot" to keep itself going. The end result is yet another unfortunate misstep in the 90s leg of Chase's career but at least it's more watchable than his late night talk show.

this movie has kept me in stitches every time i see it! i would definitely recommend it to anyone who likes to laugh. Miko Hughes is ADORABLE in this film! An all-around hilarious movie with an interesting plot and comedic characters!

I was actually quite shocked to see the only comment say this movie was very bad. My husband and I had a pretty good laugh with this one and were quite entertained. It's not going to be everyone's taste but if you like slapstick mingled with a bit of stupidity it's right up your alley. I will agree that it is no National Lampoon (Animal House) but it does follow in the same vein as the "Vacation" movies though. Chevy and Dianne made a great couple and have a great sense of timing that is so important to a good comedy. Chevy's character similar to "Vacation" develops from an disrespected head of the house to a respected Father. Don't pass this one by.

I tell you what, man. When I saw that this film was given a 4.7, I had to speak up. I had to set the record straight- this movie is great. All joking aside.

Yeah, the plot makes about as much sense as Face/Off. But over the years I have not met one person that watched this movie and wasn't repeating lines the next day.

But enough about that. This movie has chemistry between the actors. There is just enough peril to keep the movie serious. It moves a long at a good pace. The dialog is about as funny as one could hope. Each character has some issue that is developed and ultimately resolved, which is not an easy feat with an ensemble cast like this.

Also, this movie is to Jack Palance what True Grit was for John Wayne. Jack Palance's Detective Jake Stone is a caricature of his previous roles as a no-nonsense, cynical, chain-smoking bad-ass.

Then you have Chevy Chase who is as funny as ever. For that matter, I really don't see how somebody that likes the Vacation movies could dislike this film. It's pretty much the same family, only they don't go on vacation. They have some cops come live with them and comedy ensues.

Anybody who gives this movie less than a 6/10 needs to pull the stick out of their rectum.