On the surface Let’s Be Cops feels like it should be a remake of an ’80s film that was hilarious at the time but aged horribly over the years. It feels like it should’ve originally starred Eddie Murphy and Judge Reinhold, sometime after Beverly Hills Cop 2, and that a remake would be a different look at the same premise: two guys who are basically losers figuring out how to be better people … by pretending to be police officers.
It seems like the kind of film that’d have been a hit but never become a franchise for any number of reasons, with sequels turning into films like The Last Boy Scout instead. Thus Let’s Be Cops feels off because it’s not in the vein of the modern comedy; it’s a fairly simple premise that seems way less complex than many comedies today are by comparison.
It feels like something that’s been updated to correct something profoundly politically incorrect in today’s more enlightened culture.
Ryan (Jake Johnson) and Justin (Damon Wayans, Jr) are a pair of 30 year olds who’ve profoundly failed at life. Ryan was an elite college quarterback who blew out his knee, moving to L.A to pursue a dream of becoming an actor. He’s most known for being in a commercial featuring Herpes medication, which he’s been living off of for nearly two years. Justin wanted to develop video games but his next generation game was turned by his jerk boss (Jon Lajoie) into “Firefighters vs. Zombies.” When a misinterpretation by Ryan leaves them dressing up as police officers for a masquerade ball, and both embarrassed about their failings in life, they discover something about their authentic costumes.
Everyone assumes they actually are police officers.
From there it’s a series of wacky shenanigans as Ryan embraces being a police officer, buying a car on eBay and outfitting it to make it look like an LAPD squad car. Justin joins him after some prodding, of course, as his jerk boss’s treatment of his project inspires him to commit any number of felonies. When they wind up stumbling into a criminal enterprise they wind up joining forces with a real cop (Rob Riggle) to bring it down, with the requisite character building and defining story to turn them into the people they could be as opposed to the movie loser-types they are.
Crazy enough the film works on a number of levels because of Johnson and Wayans, who conveniently also star in the Fox show New GirlDirector: Luke Greenfield
Writer: Greenfield and Nicholas Thomas
Notable Cast: Damon Wayans Jr, Jake Johnson, Rob Riggle
