When I first saw the trailer for Cop Out, I thought it was a parody from 30 Rock. I was almost certain it was a reference to the fictional Tracy Jordan movie Black Cop White Cop. It was only when I saw that Tracy Morgan was billed by his real name that I accepted the fact it was a real movie starring Morgan and Bruce Willis and directed by Kevin Smith.

In typical buddy cop fashion, Willis plays Jimmy Monroe, the straight man to Morgan’s kooky Paul Hodges. The two veteran cops play by nobody’s rules but their own—much to the chagrin of the boss—but always manage to catch the bad guys. When Jimmy’s treasured baseball card is stolen, the two set out to find the card, stumbling into a kidnapping plot along the way.

I’ll admit, the fact that Smith directed the film made me instantly cautious. While Smith’s earlier work (Clerks, Chasing Amy, Dogma) was sharp, clever and entertaining, his recent films would be better described as a self-indulgent trip back to the well of Dante and Randal or Jay and Silent Bob. He was living proof that one person taking on several responsibilities, like acting, directing, producing, and editing can lead to Tommy Wiseau-esque results. In addition to his films, his Evening With Kevin Smith DVDs only escalated his douchiness, with Smith babbling for hours about bowel movements as his devoted flock of followers listened. Smith just kept moving farther away from auteur and closer to being that annoying kid in college who thinks he’s so much smarter than everyone else in class…

Read the rest at http://trashwire.com/2010/02/26/cop-out-is-evidence-that-less-kevin-smith-is-more/