“I avoided this one as long as I could. There were a couple opportunities in earlier weeks to see it, but I decided to hold strong. I don’t _really_ need to see every big name movie that comes out. If the trailer made me groan more than it made me laugh, it doesn’t need to be on the list. Critics panned it, but audiences were enjoying it, so there was some potential there. Looking at my movie prospects for the weekend, if I wanted to go to a particular theater that would put me in the area for some errands I wanted to run (and not kill my 16 week streak of checking in on Foursquare, er, Swam) my options were this or a wildcard movie who hadn’t even publicized enough to get a trailer in front of me that was getting even worse reviews. Fine.
As it started, I heard the very familiar accoustic guitar pickings of a song I know and love, that hit me right in the nostalgic feels. “”I Want It That Way””. That gave me hope. And then everything went downhill quickly.
I just didn’t find any of it funny. While I can appreciate stupid humor, there has to be some effort to it. This was plain dumb. Not only that, I was actually kinda uncomfortable watching it. I think I have far too much respect for law enforcement to enjoy watching a couple of guys with such blatant disrespect. It’s one thing when you’ve got your Jump Street boys making fun of the force, since they’re supposed to be part of it, and it’s like they’re teasing themselves (not to mention the fact that Jump Street is just more clever and funny), but these guys had such disregard for the system and for the work that police officers do, it just did not feel right. True, some of it may just been the discomfort you get when you’re watching charaters in awkward situations, but some of their actions jsut did not sit right with me.
Another problem was that I just didn’t find either of our actors that engaging or their characters likeable. Damon Wayans Jr was weak and Jake Johnson was a d-bag bro. For a buddy comedy to work, you have to want to be buddies with them. I did not. Surprisingly, the one I did like was Rob Riggle. Normally, he’s the annoying doofus, but he gave his real cop character a level of sincerity I’ve never seen from him before. He allowed the other guys to make asses of themselves, and walked away looking like the more seasoned and thoughtful actor. I’d very much like to see more of this from him. Just in a different movie, because please God don’t make me go thru this one again.
I actually made a conscious decision to take a nap part way thru. I was checking my watch, noticing that I was only halfway thru. I figured if I slept thru part of it, it’d go faster. I think that was a smart move.
Let’s Be Cops – \m/”