The trailer below earned its red band for weed tokes and F-bomb jokes.
Fox’s upcoming buddy comedy Let’s Be Cops seems like it was made for anyone who went and saw Ride Along in theaters and thought to themselves, "What this movie needs isn’t just one non-cop, but two non-cops thrown into a crimefighting adventure for which they are woefully ill-prepared." It looks to be about as cookie-cutter as an action comedy can get, and the inclusion of a Wayans family member – in this case Damon, Jr. – is always a warning sign that an overblown performance is on the loose. All that said, I will watch the shit out of this movie when it comes out, because it’s a rite of passage for the male slacker to have innate fantasies about being a badass cop.
Wayans plays Justin, who is headed to the wrong side of 30 with his best friend Ryan (Jake Johnson), and both men want to make something more of their lives. But before they actually attempt to better themselves, they mistake a masquerade party for a costume party and arrive dressed as cops. (After Johnson makes the titular declaration, of course.) To their surprise, the embarrassment they should be feeling turns into pride as the party-goers mistake them for actual policemen. And in true man-child fashion, they decide to run with it and take their personas out on the town.
But this would only be half a movie if they pranked skateboarders and street-side stoners, so of course Ryan goes over the top and blows money he obviously doesn’t have on an old cop car to make the illusion complete. Of course, then the illusion becomes even more troublesome, as they start to insert themselves into actual crimes in progress. It’s all destined to end well, right?
These two actors have worked well together on Fox’s New Girl, and it looks like their chemistry carries over strongly enough to the big screen. My only real problem with this trailer, via Yahoo! Movies, is that I don’t really see a plot forming in all of their antics. Sure, they hit the clubs and go and stop some sorority girls from fighting – or at least they try to – but I’m not really sure where this flick is going to end up without a big vicious villain on the other side of the plot. But sometimes it’s better to go into something blindly, just like Justin and Ryan.
With appearances from Andy Garcia, Rob Riggle, James D’Arcy, Nina Dobrev and Keegan-Michael Key, Let’s Be Cops will be driving its amateur brand of justice into theaters on August 13.
