When officer Jimmy Monroe (Bruce Willis) and his partner Paul Hodges (Tracy Morgan) botch a chance to make a drug bust, they find themselves suspended without pay. Monroe must find a way to pay for his daughter’s wedding and gets the idea to sell his prized baseball card to cover what he lost in wages. Unfortunately, while selling the card he gets mugged by two robbers in the baseball card shop and his one last chance to help out with his daughter’s big day is shot. Hurt and bitter, Monroe and Hodges go after the robbers and soon find themselves knee-deep in another, tougher conspiracy involving the head drug pushers.
This movie is filled with moments of ‘funny’, but not much else. Morgan and Willis work well together as a cop comedy duo. If you need some sort of comparison on what to expect between Morgan and Willis then imagine a more up-to-date Car 54: Where are you? That is a perfect comparison. Morgan is like Gunther Toody (Joe E. Ross), a babbling goofball that doesn’t seem to have the right answers any time (well, he does once). Willis is the straight face Francis Muldoon (Fred Gwynne) that is the dependable, smart one that leads the pack. The back and forth comedy between the two is brilliant and it works just like it worked in Car 54. You’ve got these two very opposite personalities working against each other. So, give up some props to the casting department for choosing the right duo.
Here’s where the problem begins with the film, the story. The story is both ridiculous and disjointed in its plot points. Two officers involved in a shooting incident (they didn’t shoot, a drug dealer did the deed) get suspended; bad stuff already. To worsen it, Willis’ character is suddenly in a bind where he needs to pay for his daughter’s wedding; left field. To pay for his daughter’s wedding, he has to sell his invaluable baseball card; what? Now, the baseball card somehow finds its way to a drug dealer. You understand the mess here? All the way through the film it depended on the duo to support the broken story. They were funny, but their comedy couldn’t carry for two hours.
The story didn’t survive, but the comedy is still living.
With all of this said, the Blu-ray version of this film is outstanding. Not only does the picture look sharp, but the audio is good as well. The audio, which Kevin Smith movies excel in, is really nicely done in DTS-HD. The video is very sharp, but secondary.
The real beef here is the special features section. You get some really funny extended scenes with the film and some fantastic outtakes. On top of this, you get some great insight and commentary from Kevin Smith. If you’ve never had the pleasure of seeing Kevin Smith live then you’re in for a treat. He has some neat walk-ons and some great information that should keep you happy and almost forgiving for the film’s issues.
The list of features is here:
– Over an Hour of Never-Before-Seen Extended Scenes and Outtakes
– Picture-in-Picture Moments with Kevin Smith and Seann William Scott
– Walk-ons by Kevin Smith
– Wisdom from the S*** Bandit
– Factois About the Movie and Other Information You May Find Helpful…. or Totally Useless
