''Let's Be Cops'' is a 2014 American

buddy cop Buddy cop is a film and television genre with plots involving two people of very different and conflicting personalities who are forced to work together to solve a crime and/or defeat criminals, sometimes learning from each other in the process. ...

action comedy film The action comedy is a film genre that applies to action films where humor plays a much more central role. While early films feature stuntwork and humor, academic Cynthia King wrote that the genre only came into its own as a mainstay of the Americ ...

co-written and directed by

Luke Greenfield Luke Greenfield (born February 5, 1972) is an American film director, producer, and screenwriter. He is best known for directing the 2004 film ''The Girl Next Door (2004 film), The Girl Next Door''. Greenfield directed the Pilot (Aliens in Ame ...

. The film stars

Damon Wayans Jr. Damon Kyle Wayans Jr. (born November 18, 1982) is an American actor and comedian. He starred as Brad Williams in the ABC sitcom ''Happy Endings'', for which he was nominated for the Critics' Choice Television Award for Best Supporting Actor in ...

and

Jake Johnson Mark Jake Johnson Weinberger (born May 28, 1978) is an American actor. He has starred as Nick Miller in the Fox sitcom '' New Girl'' (2011–2018), for which he was nominated for the Critics' Choice Television Award for Best Actor in a Come ...

as two friends who pretend to be police officers in

Los Angeles Los Angeles, often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, most populous city in the U.S. state of California, and the commercial, Financial District, Los Angeles, financial, and Culture of Los Angeles, ...

. The film co-starred

Nina Dobrev Nikolina Kamenova Dobreva (; born January 9, 1989), known professionally as Nina Dobrev ( ), is a Canadian actress. She is known for portraying Elena Gilbert and Katherine Pierce in The CW's supernatural drama series ''The Vampire Diaries'' (20 ...

Rob Riggle Robert Allen Riggle Jr. (born April 21, 1970) is an American actor, stand-up comedian, and retired United States Marine officer. He was born in Louisville, Kentucky, joining the Marines in 1990 and later attaining the rank of lieutenant colone ...

James D'Arcy James D'Arcy (born Simon Richard D'Arcy; 24 August 1975) is an English actor and film director. He is known for his portrayals of Howard Stark's butler, Edwin Jarvis, in the Marvel Cinematic Universe television series '' Agent Carter'' and th ...

, and

Andy García Andrés Arturo García Menéndez (born April 12, 1956) is an American actor, director, producer, and musician. He first rose to prominence acting in Brian De Palma's '' The Untouchables'' (1987) alongside Kevin Costner, Sean Connery, and ...

. It was filmed on location in Atlanta, Georgia, and released on August 13, 2014. It received negative reviews from critics and grossed $138.2 million worldwide against a production budget of $17 million.

Plot

, longtime friends Justin Miller, a struggling

video game A video game or computer game is an electronic game that involves interaction with a user interface or input device (such as a joystick, game controller, controller, computer keyboard, keyboard, or motion sensing device) to generate visual fe ...

designer, and Ryan O'Malley, an unemployed former college

quarterback The quarterback (QB) is a position in gridiron football who are members of the offensive side of the ball and mostly line up directly behind the Lineman (football), offensive line. In modern American football, the quarterback is usually consider ...

, recall a pact they once made: if they had not achieved success by age thirty, they would move back to

Columbus, Ohio Columbus (, ) is the List of capitals in the United States, capital and List of cities in Ohio, most populous city of the U.S. state of Ohio. With a 2020 United States census, 2020 census population of 905,748, it is the List of United States ...

. Leaving a bar, Ryan's car is hit by an intimidating Albanian gang. After Justin's unsuccessful pitch for a police-themed video game, Ryan convinces him to wear the police uniforms from his presentation as costumes at their college reunion. Confronted with their classmates' success and their own sense of failure, they decide to honor their pact, but are treated like real cops on the street. Enjoying the charade, they kick the Albanian gang out of Georgie's, a restaurant where Justin finally gains the attention of Josie, a waitress he likes. Ryan doubles down on the hoax, learning official procedures from YouTube and modifying a decommissioned

Ford Crown Victoria Police Interceptor The Ford Crown Victoria Police Interceptor (colloquially referred to as the CVPI, P71, or P7B) is a four-door, body-on-frame sedan that was manufactured by Ford Motor Company, Ford from 1992 to 2011. It is the police car version of the Ford Crow ...

to resemble an active

Los Angeles Police Department The City of Los Angeles Police Department, commonly referred to as Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD), is the primary law enforcement agency of Los Angeles, California, United States. With 8,832 officers and 3,000 civilian staff, it is the th ...

vehicle. Justin reluctantly joins him, and begins a relationship with Josie. During their shenanigans, the friends end up on a real distress call with Patrol Officer Segars. Justin realizes they face serious jail time if exposed, but Josie calls about a man harassing her at the restaurant. He turns out to be Mossi Kasic, the Albanian gang's leader, who intimidates the "officers" into doing nothing. The friends obtain surveillance equipment from Segars to stakeout Mossi, observing him with an unidentified partner who has been investigating Ryan and Justin, believing them to be federal agents. Mossi receives a shipment of crates, and the friends interrogate the delivery driver, Pupa. Josie, an aspiring makeup artist, helps disguise Justin as Pupa to infiltrate Mossi's club, where Justin is forced to smoke

crystal meth Methamphetamine (contracted from ) is a potent central nervous system (CNS) stimulant that is mainly used as a recreational or performance-enhancing drug and less commonly as a second-line treatment for attention deficit hyperactivity d ...

and fight in a

bare-knuckle boxing Bare-knuckle boxing (also known as bare-knuckle or bare-knuckle fighting) is a full-contact combat sport based on punching without any form of padding on the hands. The sport as it is known today originated in 17th-century England and, although ...

match. He and Ryan discover the crates contain guns stolen from police evidence and

SWAT A SWAT (''Special Weapons and Tactics'') team is a generic term for a police tactical unit within the United States, though the term has also been used by other nations. SWAT units are generally trained, equipped, and deployed to res ...

equipment and weapons, along with a

secret tunnel Secret passages, also commonly referred to as hidden passages or secret tunnels, are hidden routes used for stealthy travel, escape, or movement of people and goods. They are sometimes inside buildings leading to secret rooms. Others allow pe ...

between Mossi's club and Georgie's restaurant. Fed up with being in danger, Justin accuses Ryan of filling his own lack of purpose with fake police work, while Ryan criticizes Justin for his cowardice and his inability to stand up for himself, and they part ways. Ryan brings his evidence against Mossi to Segars, who introduces the head of the organized crime unit, Detective Brolin — Mossi's partner. Recognizing each other, Brolin threatens Ryan, while a newly assertive Justin pitches his game again in uniform. One of Brolin's officers arrives to kill him, inadvertently helping sell the pitch, and Justin escapes but Ryan is abducted by Mossi's men. Justin calls Segars for help and admits everything, before confessing to Josie that he is not a real cop and entering the tunnel alone. A captive Ryan pits Mossi and Brolin against each other, prompting Mossi to kill Brolin. Justin attempts to save Ryan, but is overpowered. Segars arrives and a gunfight ensues, with Ryan and Justin arming themselves with the stolen SWAT equipment. Cornered by Mossi, they are saved by Segars, who shoots Mossi in the neck and lets the friends go free. With his newfound confidence, Justin becomes a successful game developer, while a motivated Ryan graduates from the police academy as a full-fledged LAPD officer. Justin apologizes to Josie, and they rekindle their relationship. Ryan arrives with Pupa, his new informant, and drags Justin on a high-speed chase.

Cast

Production

Principal photography Principal photography is the phase of producing a film or television show in which the bulk of shooting takes place, as distinct from the phases of pre-production and post-production. Personnel Besides the main film personnel, such as the ...

began in May 2013 in

Atlanta Atlanta ( ) is the List of capitals in the United States, capital and List of municipalities in Georgia (U.S. state), most populous city in the U.S. state of Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia. It is the county seat, seat of Fulton County, Georg ...

Georgia Georgia most commonly refers to: * Georgia (country), a country in the South Caucasus * Georgia (U.S. state), a state in the southeastern United States Georgia may also refer to: People and fictional characters * Georgia (name), a list of pe ...

, some of the filming also took place in Charleston, South Carolina, and wrapped up in July.

Release

The film was released on August 13, 2014 with an R rating in the United States and a 15 certificate in the UK.

Home media

''Let's Be Cops'' was released on

DVD The DVD (common abbreviation for digital video disc or digital versatile disc) is a digital optical disc data storage format. It was invented and developed in 1995 and first released on November 1, 1996, in Japan. The medium can store any ki ...

and

Blu-ray Blu-ray (Blu-ray Disc or BD) is a digital optical disc data storage format designed to supersede the DVD format. It was invented and developed in 2005 and released worldwide on June 20, 2006, capable of storing several hours of high-defin ...

on November 11, 2014 By

20th Century Fox Home Entertainment 20th Century Home Entertainment (previously known as Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment, LLC. and also known as 20th Century Studios Home Entertainment) was a home video distribution arm that distributes films produced by 20th Century Stud ...

Box office

''Let's Be Cops'' grossed $82.4 million in North America and $55.8 million in other territories for a total gross of $138.2 million, against a production budget of $17 million. The film grossed $8.4 million on Wednesday and Thursday, and $17.8 million in its opening weekend, finishing in third at the box office behind ''

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles ''Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles'' (''TMNT'') is an American media franchise created by comic book artists Kevin Eastman and Peter Laird. It follows Leonardo (Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles), Leonardo, Donatello (Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles), D ...

'' ($28.5 million) and ''

Guardians of the Galaxy The Guardians of the Galaxy are a fictional superhero team appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. Comic book teams 1969 team The 1969 version of the Guardians of the Galaxy (1969 team), Guardians of the Galaxy were the origi ...

'' ($25.1 million), but the first among the weekend's new releases.

Critical response

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review aggregator, review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee ...

, the film has an approval rating of 19% based on 81 reviews and an average rating of 3.86/10. The site's critical consensus reads, "Damon Wayans, Jr. and Jake Johnson have comedic chemistry; unfortunately, ''Let's Be Cops'' fails to do anything with it." On

Metacritic Metacritic is an American website that aggregates reviews of films, television shows, music albums, video games, and formerly books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created ...

, the film has a score of 30 out of 100 based on 23 critics, indicating "generally unfavorable" reviews. Audiences polled by

CinemaScore CinemaScore is an American market research firm based in Las Vegas. It surveys film audiences to rate their viewing experiences with letter grades, reports the results, and forecasts box office receipts from the data. Background Ed Mintz, who ...

gave the film an average grade of "B" on an A+ to F scale. Joe Leydon of ''

Variety magazine ''Variety'' is an American trade magazine owned by Penske Media Corporation. It was founded by Sime Silverman in New York City in 1905 as a weekly newspaper reporting on theater and vaudeville. In 1933, ''Daily Variety'' was launched, based in ...

'' wrote: "The mix of funny business and rough stuff isn't always smooth, but the target audience likely will be amused." Nick de Semlyen of ''

Empire magazine ''Empire'' is a British film magazine published monthly by Bauer Media Group. The first issue was published in May 1989. History David Hepworth of Emap, the publisher of British music magazines '' Q'' and ''Smash Hits'', proposed the idea of ...

'' wrote: "Some nice comic beats and a sinister Andy Garcia turn make this far more watchable that the fratty conceit might suggest." Bilge Ebiri of

New York Magazine ''New York'' is an American biweekly magazine concerned with life, culture, politics, and style generally, with a particular emphasis on New York City. Founded by Clay Felker and Milton Glaser in 1968 as a competitor to ''The New Yorker'' a ...

wrote: "Let’s Be Cops has its moments, but it in no way distinguishes itself." ''

Time Time is the continuous progression of existence that occurs in an apparently irreversible process, irreversible succession from the past, through the present, and into the future. It is a component quantity of various measurements used to sequ ...

'' magazine placed ''Let's Be Cops'' fifth in their ranking of the 10 worst movies of 2014, stating: "The initial setup of ''Let's Be Cops'' could have been a funny premise for a B-plot on a show ... but instead, the idea is stretched into a never-ending feature that fails to find any chemistry between Johnson and Wayans". The movie's release on August 13, 2014, occurring just four days after the fatal shooting of Michael Brown in

Ferguson, Missouri Ferguson is a city in St. Louis County, Missouri, St. Louis County, Missouri, United States. It is part of the Greater St. Louis metropolitan area. Per the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, the population was 18,527, and is predominantly Bla ...

, was interpreted by more progressive-leaning media as somewhat ill-timed. In a 2015 interview on

Sway in the Morning Shade 45 is American rapper Eminem's hip-hop station on Sirius XM Radio channel 45 and Dish Network channel 6045. History Eminem established his channel, Shade 45, that plays uncut hip-hop. Eminem also established a new morning show, ''Sway in t ...

, Wayans hinted that he would not be interested in a sequel until real-life police brutality was addressed.

References

External links

* * * * *
Let's Be Cops Soundtrack
{{DEFAULTSORT:Let's Be Cops 2014 films 2014 action comedy films 20th Century Fox films Albanian Mafia American action comedy films American buddy cop films Films scored by Christophe Beck Films scored by Jake Monaco Films shot in Atlanta 2010s police comedy films 2010s buddy cop films 2014 comedy films Films directed by Luke Greenfield Films produced by Simon Kinberg TSG Entertainment films 2010s English-language films 2010s American films English-language crime comedy films English-language action comedy films English-language thriller films English-language buddy comedy films