LET’S BE COPS

LET’S BE COPS is a crude comedy about two dope-smoking slackers who discover that wearing policeman costumes gains them respect; so then, they go on a series of irresponsible escapades across Los Angeles.

Justin and Ryan are two best friends whose dreams in life are slipping away. Justin works at a video-game company and wants to sell a concept about heroic cops as a game, but his bosses laugh at him and decide to feature zombies instead. Ryan is a former star college quarterback who’s never figured out what to do with his life after an injury ended his playing days.

When they attend their college reunion wearing full-on cop costumes while others are simply wearing masquerade masks, Justin feels they’ve made fools of themselves, but Ryan sees an opportunity in the fact their former classmates truly believe they’re police. When beautiful women hug and kiss them on the street, and they manage to make people freeze by touching their unloaded guns, Ryan gets the idea they should really push the idea of playing cops as far as it can go.

Justin tries to stay responsible at his job while Ryan buys an old cop car on Ebay and redecorates it to look like a real LAPD cruiser. However, when they run afoul of a gang that’s extorting innocent shop owners and humiliate the thugs while preventing the collection of shakedown money, the gang’s crime boss orders them captured or killed. Suddenly, these fake cops are in real danger, with only a couple of clueless real cops to support them since they fear getting caught and charged with serious crimes.

Amid this main plot thread, there are numerous comical scenes. Some of them are crude, such as a scene where Justin and Ryan are roped into helping stop an armed robbery and wind up with a giant naked Asian man inexplicably tackling Ryan. In other scenes, Ryan yells obscenities at some mean children and helps a loser kid score social points by riding along on his misadventures are also funny. The guys also encounter a bizarre woman who tries to seduce an uncooperative Ryan, as he and Justin set up surveillance cameras on the bad guys.

[SPOILERS] Eventually, the guys have learned their lesson while helping the real cops save the day and take down the gang. Justin learns to be bold and finally launches his cop video game to great success, and Ryan is honored along with the real cops.

LET’S BE COPS has plenty of illicit and illegal behavior fraught with deception and lies, but it’s all so ridiculous that it’s hard to take seriously. Damon Wayans, Jr. and Jake Johnson build on their chemistry as cast-mates in Fox TV’s NEW GIRL and are excellent in their roles here, with Johnson funny in almost every ridiculous thing he says or does.

That said, this is definitely a movie for adults, especially due to its frequent and excessive amount of foul language and other negative elements. LET’S BE COPS is silly enough not to be taken too seriously or considered totally tasteless or worthless, but extreme caution is warranted nevertheless. Media-wise viewers will want to avoid LET’S BE COPS.