HOLLYWOOD, Calif. — Directed by Kevin Smith, Cop Out features two longtime NYPD partners on the trail of a stolen, rare, mint-condition baseball card who find themselves up against a merciless, memorabilia-obsessed gangster. But before they can recover the prized ’52 Pafko, they must first rescue a Mexican beauty who holds the key to millions of dollars in off-shore bank accounts—and who has already witnessed one high-profile murder because of them.
Veteran detective Jimmy Monroe (Bruce Willis) needs to cash in on his perfect Pafko in order to pay for his daughter’s upcoming wedding, but in the tradition of everything that can go wrong…it’s pilfered before he has a chance to collect. Paul Hodges (Tracy Morgan) is Jimmy’s “partner-against-crime,” whose preoccupation with his wife’s alleged infidelity makes it hard for him to keep his eye on the ball, or his mind on the crime. Already in trouble and with nothing left to lose, Jimmy and Paul will have to break all the rules—including enlisting the aid of stoner thief Dave (Seann William Scott), who’s working Paul’s last nerve as Paul and Jimmy try to work the case.
“The script just made me laugh out loud when I read it,” says Willis. “It was really funny…the kind of film you tell your friends to go see.”
Having previously worked with Smith nearly a decade ago, Morgan says of the director, “He knows it, he gets it. He’s a comedian’s comedian. He directs in a way where you think you know the scene, but he’ll say, ‘Yo, do this or do that, say this or say that,’ and it gives it a whole different spin. I love the way he directs.”
Teaming Willis and Morgan, Smith notes, “My forte is really two dudes talking to each other,” says the director. “This film has that, plus more action than anything I’ve done before. Though there are no action figures for this one…yet. I’ll find a way,” quips the director, who is also famous for being a collector.
Smith continues, “For me, the biggest influence I drew from in making Cop Out was Abbott and Costello. This is very much like an Abbott and Costello movie…with guns. If I made this movie, and my father was still alive and saw it, he’d say, ‘You do make movies! I just thought it was you and your friends running around with a camera talking about not being able to get laid, but this has a plot, there are guns…Bruce Willis is in it!’ He would’ve been so proud.”
Watch: Cop Out Movie Trailer
Watch: Cop Out Cast Interviews
