Let’s Be Cops has one of the worst premises in recent memory. Watching two idiots get in over their heads imitating cops because they want their lives to go somewhere is stupid and insulting to the hardworking protectors of the law. I’m asking you to look past that at the comedy acumen of who the stars are. Jake Johnson and (especially) Damon Wayans Jr. have intimidating comedic chops; Let’s Be Cops wisely abandons plot to just let them play off each other.
Ryan (Johnson) and Justin (Wayans Jr.) graduated from Purdue and moved to Los Angeles to follow their dreams with zero luck. Ryan is reliving his QB glory days (the first of many absurdities that Johnson is a QB) coaching pee-wee football, and Justin is an assistant at a video game company with a self-important boss (Jon Lajoie) who treats him like garbage. After a failed presentation, Justin and Ryan put on cop outfits to go to a “costume” party, only to realize that many people dig a man in uniform, especially women. However, their actions have consequences: Ryan draws the attention of a local mafia boss (James D’Arcy) who is putting dangerous pressure on a restaurant that Justin’s love interest Josie (Nina Dobrev) works at.
Let’s Be Cops takes the considerable talent on TV and puts it on display for the audience at home. Get to know some of these people. Jake Johnson is really good at faking confidence and hiding unfulfilled dreams on New Girl; here he basically plays the same character. Damon Wayans Jr. exudes charisma and controlled panic as well here as on New Girl and Happy Endings, his two shows. One half of Key and Peele gets some funny moments playing insane. The League (Jon Lajoie), The Vampire Diaries (Nina Dobrev), Saturday Night Live (Rob Riggle), Suburgatory (Natasha Leggero), and Nashville (Angela Kerecz) are all well represented in Let’s Be Cops as well. With TV invading film here, there’s a tendency to play up the crazy too high and miss some nuance and buildup; positively, the character stuff is better explored than in similar movie fare. Most importantly, Let’s Be Cops is FUNNY. Johnson and Wayans have worked together for a couple of years now; I’m almost certain the director had no script and just let them make up scenes as they went along. There are digs at racism, white girl dancing, and use of foreign language that are quite well executed and get big laughs. Until the final act, Let’s Be Cops moves quickly along like a TV comedy, jokes dispensed via rapid fire. By the time the end approaches, the movie hopes that the goodwill it has built up makes up for the dramatic turns the movie takes.
But the story could not ring more false; I’m pretty sure this script was swiped from an 8th grader. You can talk me into these two guys having one crazy night and maybe trying a little cop stuff on the side; however, they REPEATEDLY enter public places that want cops nowhere near them. Immediately after entering a night club, they go to the dance floor and lead a dance off; funny, but completely illogical: the club would be pissed. Women also serve no other purpose than to throw themselves at authority figures (admittedly, in one instance, with hilarious consequences). Other cops come off as dumb and make poor decisions to perpetuate the lie, not the finest moments for the boys in blue. Dumb and Dumber is probably what Let’s Be Cops was aiming for, with bad guys and good guys alike taking the two idiots seriously because of the supposed randomness of their actions. Dumb and Dumber had no larger lesson really though; Let’s Be Cops tries to push personal responsibility down people’s throats to the point that you just cringe when the dramatic music comes on.
Remember Let’s Be Cops as the first time that Jake Johnson and Damon Wayans Jr. led a comedy before they got mega-famous. These two are too talented for the material here; hopefully they get a solid paycheck that lets them do more stuff where they have creative control. More importantly, can someone get Damon Wayans Jr. to dance like all the stereotypes? He has a talent for finding little moves that each race/gender do when they get down on the dance floor.