COP OUT poster is default cheesy
COP OUT poster is default cheesy
Jan 15
Show me this poster for Cop Out on any other day, without any knowledge that Kevin Smith was the director, and I would never believe that Silent Bob himself was the one behind it. For the first time in his film career, Kevin Smith has directed a film that he did not also write. The result is Cop Out, starring Bruce Willis and Tracey Morgan as two bumbling police officers in a buddy cop-film formerly titled A Couple of Dicks.
The poster (via IGN) is nothing surprising. I’m not exactly sure how you spruce up a poster for a buddy-cop film, but this one doesn’t pull any favours. Keeping it safe and playing to an unsuspecting market is the aim of the game here. Everything is so damn cheesy and default, right down to the smoke coming from Willis’ pistol. It completely gives up with the tag. How the fuck is “Rock out with your glock out” going to make entice people to invest in a ticket? Still, I wonder how many will go see it without realising Kevin Smith is behind the wheel (and if that changes anything)?
I sincerely hope and wish it to be a box office success for him — Lord knows he deserves a #1 flick, even if just for being an all-round down-to-earth guy. One might not like his films, but no-one can deny the man himself is worth every chuckle. YouTube his huge ass if you haven’t already and listen to the man speak about the industry.
Like many from my generation, I found it easy to look up to Kevin Smith after independent breakouts like Clerks (1994) and Chasing Amy (1997). Hell, even Mallrats (1995) has a special place in the hearts of fans of the View Askew universe. As a 16-year-old aspiring to one day make my own films, Kevin Smith was definitely one to be aware of and respect. The story about how he got Clerks made is almost as good as the film itself.
Now it seems Kevin Smith’s career is at a crossroads — and he openly talks about it on his podcast and twitter network. After the box-office failure of Zack & Miri Make A Porno (2008) (or, just Zack & Miri in some territories) he decided to direct for a studio for the first time (Warner Brothers) and see how things pan out from there. Maybe he continues to just direct? Maybe this changes pace for him and he can expand on his written projects? Or maybe it completely flops and he’s back to square one?
I hate to judge a movie by its poster — but that is the name of the game here. Might just have to hope that word-of-mouth gets Cop Out over the line.
I think the photo with Tracy dressed as a celphone tells us everything we need to know. Tracy Morgan is working on becoming a movie star, so he will dress in the stupid costume for laughs. Willis is the old hand and were it even suggested that he dress in an idiotic costume, would simply veto the dumbness of that suggestion. Futher, why isn't Tracy dressed as an iPhone or even better, a version of the Google Andrioid? Producers, youy've dropped the ball.
On the other hand, Rock Out With Your Glock Out made me laugh for about three seconds. That's pretty good for a movie tag line.
I am disposed to like Kevin Smith because he is so upfront about his place in the movie business, but maybe he needed to change it up a little. His doing a flat-sounding studio pic might not be such a bad thing. I guess he is jumping on the”one-for-them-one-for-me” bandwagon after so many years of doing it his way. Perhaps this seemed preferable to never doing it his way again?
Yes, I hope Kevin goes back to his stuff, then back to a studio… and so on. I'm interested to see if his horror film Red State gets to see the light of day.