In 'Cop Out,' Bruce Willis bides his time between 'Die Hards' as Jimmy Monroe, a veteran New York City detective who operates as straight man to his loose cannon, fast-talking partner Paul Hodges (Tracy Morgan of '30 Rock').

The pair work together to take down some Mexican gangsters and retrieve a stolen baseball card so Jimmy can pay for his daughter's wedding. Seann William Scott takes on the Joe Pesci role as the miscreant who cracks wise in the back seat.

Directed by Kevin Smith from a script by Robb and Marc Cullen (the first time Smith has helmed a feature that he hasn't written), 'Cop Out' is a send-up of those black-white buddy cop flicks a la '48 HRS' and 'Lethal Weapon' that were so pervasive in the 1980s.

Unfortunately, most critics thought this movie  with the exception of the scene-stealing Scott -- should have been arrested for disorderly conduct rather than released at large.
"The film is a barely satirical homage to the interracial buddy-cop flicks that flourished in the 1980s, and that means Smith is trying to mimic some of the most machine-tooled wise-guy banter in the history of cinema. ... There's not a whole lot to 'Cop Out' besides watching Kevin Smith pretend, with a crudeness that is simply boring, that he's an action director making a comic thriller about cops versus a Mexican drug gang (yawn)."

The Hollywood Reporter: "An homage to the '80s buddy-cop comedy, right down to the Harold Faltermeyer synth score, the extensively ad-libbed 'Cop Out' doesn't cop out on talking the talk, but it falls down on the job whenever it comes to walking the walk. ... Willis and Morgan carry their weight, but they're handily upstaged every time a terrific Seann William Scott pops up as a goading, goofball jerk of a perp."

Orlando Sentinel: "Poor plotting, inept staging and slack pacing remind us that Smith ('Clerks') is better at riffs than at making functional, wholly realized films. ... 'Cop Out' is still funnier than the dreadful later Eddie Murphy cop pictures. But it feels like an homage to a period best forgotten, just a chance for all involved to sell out and cash in with a crude comedy that reminds us how bad these particular 'good old days' were."