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Damon Wayans, Jr. and Jake Johnson have comedic chemistry; unfortunately, Let's Be Cops fails to do anything with it. Read critic reviews
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Movie Info
Best pals Ryan (Jake Johnson) and Justin (Damon Wayans Jr.) are stalled in their respective careers -- a fact that is painfully driven home when they go to a college reunion. Dressed as police in the mistaken belief that they were to attend a costume party, Ryan and Justin find that the uniforms earn them much respect and attention. Although Justin is uncomfortable with the idea, Ryan decides to continue with the charade, putting them both in increasingly dangerous situations.
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Rating: R (Language|Drug Use|Sexual References|Some Graphic Nudity|Violence)
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Genre: Comedy, Action
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Original Language: English
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Director: Luke Greenfield
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Producer: Simon Kinberg, Luke Greenfield, Aditya Sood
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Writer: Luke Greenfield, Nicholas Thomas
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Release Date (Theaters): wide
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Release Date (Streaming):
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Box Office (Gross USA): $82.4M
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Runtime:
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Distributor: 20th Century Fox
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Production Co: Kinberg Genre, Genre Films, Luke Greenfield, Twentieth Century Fox, WideAwake
Cast & Crew
News & Interviews for Let's Be Cops
Critic Reviews for Let's Be Cops
Audience Reviews for Let's Be Cops
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From the highest of highs (Guardians of the Galaxy, How to Train your Dragon 2) to the lowest of lows with this one. Don't get me wrong, both Damon Wayans Jr and Jake Johnson have good chemistry with each other. That's really the only reason the film gets the one start that it did. The film does the bare minimum to try and get by. This is 21, and 22, Jump Street dumbed down and stripped of everything that made those two movies as good as they are. At the very least, 21 and 22 Jump Street actually have character arcs. They may be silly and raunchy, but there's some interesting, maybe not incredible, character development. They don't just throw the raunch out there with absolutely no reason to do so. It all works to further the characters and their friendship with each other. This film doesn't even do any of that. Going for the gross-out, and I do mean gross-out, instead of the heart. I realize that may sound absurd to try in a movie like this, but it's not impossible to pull off. Superbad did it, and to wonderful effect I might add. Not to mention the fact that the film completely fails as a comedy. It'd be one thing if it lacked heart, but the movie is actually funny and entertaining to watch. I wouldn't have had a problem with that at all. It's happened before and will continue to happen again. Not every film can have a great story that showcases the bond between two friends whose lives didn't go exactly the way they planned. But you have to, at the very least, give it a fucking shot and not resign yourself to the fact that, well, there's nothing we can do to fix this, so might as well take the easy way out. There's one really gross scene, I'm pretty sure you'll know the one, and it was to the point where, if somebody else came in during that scene, I would be embarrassed to be caught watching the movie. When you're EMBARRASSED that you wouldn't anyone to know that you've watched this movie, then that's another level of bad. I've reviewed some pretty horrible kid's films, recently too, and I wouldn't have been as embarrassed to be caught watching them as I did during the particular scene I'm talking about. Just dreadful. I really think I'm being kind in giving it the one measly star I gave it. That just speaks to the talents of Damon Wayans Jr and Jake Johnson. They clearly deserve better than this. Much like a lot of films, this has its highlights. Or highlight rather. The scene with Keegan Michael Key is pretty decent all things considered. It runs way too long for my liking, as does the entire film really, but you take the highlights where you can get them, right? I would've made it a little shorter, for pacing's sake, but it is what it is. It's not really THAT funny, but it has some decent chuckles. That's about it for comedic highlights. Damon and Jake get into these childish slap battles that are more amusing that genuinely funny. The film just stumbles all over the place. It's an easy contended for worst film of the year. I don't blame the leads for any of this at all, they're pretty much completely blameless in all of this. I think this movie is even worse than I originally thought prior to reviewing it. It's really fucking terrible. No, it's not one of the worst movies I've seen, but outside of too few highlights, this is is a film that will literally make you sick for days after finishing it. No fucking hyperbole there. Avoid this like it's ebola.
jesse o Super Reviewer -
A wild goofball comedy, Let's Be Cops is an entertaining ride along. When two underachieving losers are mistaken for cops after coming home from a costume party they decide to continue the charade by pretending to be cops full-time. Jake Johnson and Damon Wayans Jr. lead the cast and make for a good comedic duo. Yet the characters are all one-dimensional, and the jokes are rather cliche. Still, despite being formulaic Let's Be Cops delivers plenty of laughs.
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An amusing tripe of a movie.
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I think the start of this movie really sums up the present day extremely well. Wayans is pitching his new videogame idea to the company he works for in a board meeting, its an idea he feels is ripe fresh original and he's put a lot of effort into it. Straight off the bat his superiors immediately start to question his creation and asking what superpowers his main character has, is he a vampire and are there any zombies in it. I detect the mocking going on here and its very very accurate of the current times, everything is all about fecking superheroes and zombies. The idea here is actually really good and I'm amazed it hasn't been tapped before. I literately only recently heard of a case (in the UK I think it was) where a man was caught pretending to be a police officer in an unmarked car with a fake police ID card or something. He actually pulled over a real unmarked police car for speeding! he got carried away with his power trip...laugh out loud! This movie takes on that premise but naturally piles on the complications and consequences. Its very simple, the two main leads pretend to be police officers after dressing up for a party. They quickly realise being a cop has perks and benefits which leads them deeper and deeper into a world they don't belong. Now right away I think everyone knows what's gonna happen here, its bloody obvious and the movie doesn't really try to cover this fact. After all this is a silly frat house/frat pack type flick which you could easily see Kevin James, Adam Sandler, Will Ferrell or Ben Stiller starring in as either the straight guy or the crazy guy. So I think its pretty easy to predict what happens here, the pair abuse their fake powers with booze drugs girls, getting into clubs, driving like maniacs etc...etc...like I said its all very predictable. Right at the start the duo have a run in with some shady blokes which is blatantly the plot setup for the movie, you know they will run into these guys again as cops, get their own back, the shady blokes will turn out to be real criminals and in turn the duo will be drawn into a real cops n criminals situation. The main reason this movie does kinda work is purely down to the surprisingly good chemistry between the two leads. I've never heard of Jake Johnson but straight away he does what Kevin James is great at doing and that's playing the average Joe really well, he's a likable funny guy. Wayans isn't as funny as Johnson and unfortunately for him he looks way too much like his dad so you keep thinking it is his dad, and lets be honest...Damon Wayans Sr. is no top twenty movie star in any genre. But together these guys do click really well, they are both likable as they play off each other and its amusing to watch them bicker and fight. In the end I gotta give full points to Johnson, watching this guy get high on cop law enforcement thinking he's the real deal, actually buying a cop car, using the jargon etc...its priceless. Seriously though this role was made for Kevin James but I guess his track record is a tad tarnished at the mo from hangin out with Sandler too much. Heck they even pinched a small sketch from 'The King of Queens' where Johnson is playing football with some little kids and gets carried away taking things too seriously (good laugh though). I think this movie has similarities to James vehicle 'Mall Cop' in the sense that both films start off really well with a nice chuckle level but end up going too far. In this film the bad guy played by Brit actor D'Arcy is really quite nasty and would fit an actual adult action flick much better, he really is that intimidating. As the silly duo probe further into this criminal gang things get a bit darker as the bad guys get a bit meaner. There isn't any nasty violence or blood but the laughs tend to fall away as some scenarios get a little tense which felt a bit out of place. Again as with 'Mall Cop' the best bits are watching these guys trying to be real cops, using cop jargon they've seen from movies and TV, acting the fool, getting away with all kinds of shit and of course the obligatory scene where they eventually come face to face with some real cops. The thing is we all know if we could, we'd all probably do the same thing...if you could get away with it. Its that tense anarchic ride you know is wrong but it feels so good and its damn hilarious at the same time. I think both leads capture this simple thrill brilliantly as they do things we'd all wanna do ourselves. Yeah its completely stupid and childish most of the time but I think most people will come to expect that. Thing is the idea behind the movie isn't nonsense, it could happen quite easily which adds to the fun. Definitely a naughty fun time for grown ups which was quite unexpected truth be told, a nice surprise.
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