When did we become so uptight about comedies and about things that makes us laugh? When did we become so demanding about jokes and humor? It's a mystery to me that viewers didn't get a clue about what was so funny in "Cop Out", an homage to action-humored flicks of the 1980's but brought into a new decade. This film is light, well intentioned, hilariously funny and with good performances by the unusual team made by Bruce Willis and Tracy Morgan.

Willis and Morgan play two suspended detectives with some personal goals to achieve. Willis wants to pay for his daughter's wedding and he needs money for it, and he would get the money by selling a rare baseball card but it was stolen from him and he needs to get back; Morgan's character doesn't trust his wife so much believing that she has an affair with the neighbor, so he keeps investigating possible affairs. But both of these cops are on the run trying to find Willis card that end up on the hands of some bad guys.

The plot is silly but that's what is funny about "Cop Out". Not only the team made by Willis & Morgan were cool but the team made by Kevin Pollak and Adam Brody as the serious detectives were responsible for the most interesting and funny moments of the film; Seann William Scott goes very well with his usual comedy style, here playing a thief. The only problem with this film is the villain played by Guillermo Diaz, because this guy is so dangerous that there's no sense of comedy about him, it's not funny, and when director Kevin Smith tries to make of him a funny guy it is just too forced, weird.

The 1980's references and the film references (mentioned by the film buff detective played by Morgan) are the best. Harold Faltermeyer's musical score in a moment taken from "Beverly Hills Cop" was a nice and funny reference (you watch the scene and you instantly remember where did they took from). And the references of "Die Hard", "Beetlejuice", "In the Heat of the Night" and many other classics, used in a comic and interesting way but it only works if you know the mentioned titles.

An easy entertainment, simple and very funny. 10/10

So help me, I found Cop Out to be not completely bad. Yes, that's a backhanded compliment, but I assure you that it's completely deserved. Cop Out, from its inane title to its derivative plot, has no business being anything but a hokey hoedown of banal buddy cop dopey behavior. And yet's it's not as gut-wrenchingly awful as all that.

Cop Out stars Bruce Willis and Tracey Morgan as veteran police partners on the trail of a gangbanger (Guillermo Diaz) who loves baseball memorabilia and who just happened to steal Willis' super-valuable baseball card, the one he was going to have to sell to finance his daughter's wedding; better to do that than have his wife's new, rich husband pay for it all.

But that cop-movie aspect is almost irrelevant. What matters, and the only thing that really puts this one in the same general universe as the likes of, say, Lethal Weapon (in terms of approach, not overall quality),is the thrust-and-parry repartee between straight-arrow Willis (a 180 from his John McClane character/caricature) and loose-cannon, uber-hip Morgan. They're funny together, and they're given funny things to say in funny situations. That helps a lot.

What's puzzling about this movie is that Kevin Smith directed it, the first of his that he didn't also write. That's puzzling because the dialog isn't really this movie's strong point. If I hadn't seen Smith's name attached to this in writing, I'd never have guessed he had had a hand in it.

But ultimately, it doesn't matter much, as it's just plain not terrible. You can tell I'm trying not to go overboard in my hyperbole, right? I want to present you with a level-headed, even-handed look at whether this is worth your time. And it is, with lowered expectations. It's amusing, although not for the whole family to watch.

Kevin Smith directs but does not write this tribute to 1980s buddy cop films.

Bruce Willis and Tracy Morgan are the mismatched pair. Jimmy (Bruce Willis) and Paul (Tracy Morgan) on suspension from a drug bust gone wrong. Jimmy decides to sell an antique baseball card to help pay for his daughter's wedding but when making the transaction he gets robbed and the card is sold to a notorious criminal.

The pair then go about retrieving the card, even by finding one of the crooks who robbed him (Sean William Scott) to help them out.

At the same time they come across a drug lord who has kidnapped someone and Paul thinks his wife is having an affair.

With a music score by Harold Faltermeyer this film certainly wants you to think of Beverly Hills Cop, Running Scared, Turner & Hooch, Tango & Cash as well as other 80s mismatched buddy comedies.

The trouble is the script here is rubbish, many of the side characters are annoying and there is no chemistry between Morgan and Willis. In fact Willis is just sleepwalking it here. I do not think he even tries to act any more.

The story is derivative and none of the so called funny antics add much. Sure Smith can bring out a few mild laughs here and there but this is poor from him.