Cop Out - Loaded and Unloaded - Blu-Ray

Movie: With his debut feature "Clerks", Kevin Smith laid the foundation for a career as a cult director, which he has expanded over the course of nearly two decades with works like "Chasing Amy", "Dogma", and "Zach & Miri make a Porno". Not always loved by critics but adored by his fans, Smith has since achieved absolute cult status as a person as well. So much so that he is also allowed to make appearances in TV series (e.g. "Veronica Mars") or feature films time and again. The director made one of these appearances in "Die Hard 4.0" and thus also laid the foundation for making the lucrative step to the mainstream with his latest film "Cop Out - Loaded and Unloaded".

Because it was Smith's acquaintance with Bruce Willis that made it possible for him to stage his very special homage (by the way, you'll learn how to pronounce that word correctly by watching this film!) to '80s buddy cop movies a la "Two Steely-Haired Professionals". The action-comedy centers on detectives Jimmy (Willis) and Paul (Tracy Morgan), who have been keeping law and order on the streets of New York together for nine years. But on their anniversary of all days, an important mission goes wrong, resulting in Jimmy and Paul being suspended from duty for several weeks - without pay, of course. This is a catastrophe for Jimmy, who needs every cent he can get to pay for his daughter's dream wedding. Only the sale of his most valuable possession, a rare baseball trading card, can save him from the humiliation of having his ex-wife's new husband pay for the wedding. Too bad, though, that the store where Jimmy plans to sell the card is robbed at that very moment, and the prized possession ends up in the hands of small-time crook Dave (Seann William Scott). Despite having to turn in guns and badges, the cop duo set out to get Jimmy's baseball card back and accidentally get on the trail of that gangster who slipped through their fingers earlier. But that's just the beginning.

Kevin Smith's humor is certainly not everyone's cup of tea, especially since it's usually not really PG dialogue with which the director tries to make his audience laugh. And there are also in "Cop Out - Loaded and unlocked" again plenty of them, although these often lose in the German dubbing sharpness and wit and just seem vulgar. However, Smith relies here - probably also because he has not been involved in the screenwriting for the first time - not only on the dialogues, but also tries more physical comedy and fast-paced action. And this mixture sometimes works very well, but at other moments it goes completely wrong.

Many allusions, of course also to "Die Hard" and the "Lethal Weapon" series, are repeatedly incorporated into the film in an enjoyable way. In contrast, Harold Faltermayer's nasty 80's synth soundtrack comes across as arguably intrusive and annoying after a few minutes. Here, Smith has undoubtedly overdone it with his love of 80s action cinema.

Little can really be said about the cast. Bruce Willis plays the role of the aging cop with a low-key coolness, while Tracy Morgan, best known from the US comedy series "30 Rock", is always allowed to turn it up a notch. Morgan's very special kind of humorous performance is an absolute matter of taste, but might be received rather negatively, especially in Germany, due to his (so far) lack of popularity and the not always successful dubbing. On the other hand, Seann William Scott stands out positively as an extremely annoying, yet somehow likeable parkour runner with criminal ambitions who clearly has the laughs on his side.

The obligatory rival cop duo, a resolute housewife who defends her belongings with more than just a loose mouth, or even a wonderfully smarmy guest appearance by Smith's regular actor Jason Lee are aspects that "Cop Out - Loaded and Unloaded" can claim on the positive side. Many intended laughs that completely miss the mark, on the other hand, tend to be on the negative side. So Kevin Smith's latest film is without question his most crowd-pleasing work to date, but also makes it clear time and again that the cult director still has a lot to learn here. For children of the 80s certainly quite entertaining already because of a certain nostalgia value, the work remains altogether too often behind its possibilities. Nevertheless, the bottom line is: with restrictions still well worth seeing!

Picture + Sound: When not the mouth, but the guns of the main characters are used as a weapon, the dynamically mixed sound effects come to bear well, in the English language version a little better than in the German soundtrack. All in all, it's a decent sound mix that hits top form, especially during the big shootout towards the end. The picture is clean, has good overall sharpness and decent contrast. Colours are harmoniously matched and apart from a few minor flaws especially in the darker sequences, there is little to complain about. Very good.

Extras: The extras consist primarily of what is called Maximum Comedy Mode, an amusing variation on the Maximum Movie Mode familiar to Warner Blu-Ray. Director Kevin Smith acts as a host here, stopping the film repeatedly to reveal something about the making of the film to the viewer, showing cut scenes or presenting outtakes and alternate takes. If you watch the film in this mode, you don't really get much of the actual film. But instead, the running time of the whole thing is extended from the original 107 minutes to nearly three hours. Almost an hour of additional scenes alone is offered here, which also includes an alternative beginning. In addition to that, there are some focus points that can also be watched independently of Maximum Comedy Mode (or MCM for short), either individually or in one piece (about 21 minutes). And finally, Seann William Scott aka Pupsi gives some brief words of wisdom, but they also pop up repeatedly during the MCM.

Sure, a longer making of would have been desirable, a commentary by Bruce Willis as well. But the MCM is without question the best alternative for the lack of usual extras and especially for fans of Kevin Smith absolutely worth watching!

Conclusion: "Cop Out - Loaded and Unloaded" is a partly very funny, but partly also somewhat cramped and unfunny homage to the 80s action movies, which pleases on Blu-Ray with a good technical implementation and the especially for Kevin Smith fans great maximum comedy mode. Therefore: for all Smith and Willis fans definitely recommendable!

An article by Frankfurt-Tipp