I sometimes disagree with a consensus of critics, yet I still tend to avoid movies that are almost universally panned like this one.

In this case, I am glad I ignored the consensus. In fact, I'm a little confused by the low ratings. This movie absolutely does not suck! It was fun and funny, but in ways I didn't really expect. I thought it was just going to be stupid/bad funny, with the typical "veteran cop gets teamed up with wise-cracking, loose-cannon amateur with hilarious results" formula. But it was better than that.

I don't feel like rambling on about the details. I don't usually write movie reviews, but I felt it was important to play my small part in spreading the word that this movie doesn't deserve the trashing it's gotten.

And as an aside, I am not a Kevin Smith fan, nor do I hate him or his movies. Actually, his movies never appealed to me, and I haven't seen any of them. Nevertheless, I suspect that some of the critics' negativity toward this movie might be some kind of weird thing about Kevin Smith rather than an objective reaction to the movie itself. Just my suspicion.