By: Holley Sinn

Verdict:  Approved!

From a marketing perspective, the "Kevin Smith/Southwest Airlines" debacle couldn't come at a better time.  In fact, maybe the veteran director who brought us "Clerks" and "Mall Rats" should send a nice little check to the flight attendant responsible for kicking him off the plane last week...because thanks to his inability to fit comfortably in an airplane seat, his latest little movie "Cop Out" is getting a bit more buzz. 

Bruce Willis and Tracy Morgan play Jimmy Moore and Paul Hodges...the two members of an old-school police detective duo who have a flare for the dramatic.  After a botched sting gets an informant killed, the detectives are suspended without pay, leaving Jimmy with no way to pay for his daughter's lavishly expensive wedding.  When the two visit a memorabilia shop in an attempt to pawn Jimmy's prize baseball card, a high-energy thief and addict, played by Sean William Scott, makes off with the card and Jimmy's only hope at generating some cash.

In an effort to retrieve the card, Paul and Jimmy find themselves waist-deep in a larger case involving a Mexican drug lord.  As the action unfolds, the stakes get higher, and while getting the card back is still the ultimate goal, Jimmy and Paul find that they're brand of police work is still the most effective in getting the job done...even when they're not on duty.

"Cop Out" doesn't have the strongest plot in the universe, but Willis and Morgan deliver such likeable performances, it doesn't really matter.  They're goofballs without being inept...but capable of just enough mistakes to keep the story moving.  This is Kevin Smith's homage to classic 80s detective flicks like "Fletch" and "Beverly Hills Cop".  In fact, even the 80s inspired score was composed by Harold Faltermeyer who is responsible for both of the aforementioned films as well as "Top Gun" and the rest of the "Beverly Hills Cop" series.

I'm recommending "Cop Out" just because it's a nugget of clever silliness that will appeal to both sexes and transport fans of 80s police comedies back to a simpler...goofier time.  "Cop Out" is rated "R" for language and drug references, and it opens today in theaters all over the bay area.