REVIEW: Let's Be Cops

4/10 - Near unwatchable. 

You know what I hate? A film that has a good premise but doesn't know how to get to that setup in a realistic way.

In this case, the concept is the guys from New Girl run around as cops. Great. How do we get there? A pretty piss poor series of events. It's the plot a 8th grader would write - One is a video game developer who has cop uniforms because... he wants to make a cop video game? And the cops just hand over uniforms for that sort of thing. Then they make their own cop car. For real. They just get a car and make it into a cop car. That's a thing, I guess. Deadbeats who can't get their lives together decide to realistically fool the cops with little to no motivation.

The best thing I can say about this movie is it puts some scenes of fun things to good music.

There are some delightful cameos that I won't spoil. Natasha Leggero is on of my favorites, she's a gem. The casting in general is quite well done. Jake Johnson and Damon Waynes Jr. are really fun together.

But for real, don't see this movie. I can't imagine what kind of train-wreck this would be if it didn't have such a great set of leads. The plot is virtually non-existent. There's nothing original about the scenarios they find themselves in. Everyone plays their lines mildly funny but there really is nothing inherently funny about the story.

What's actually a little worrisome about this film is how similar the story is to the 2013 buddy real-cop movie The Heat. If the intention is to write a movie about idiots pretending to be cops, it's should't culminate with them actually being great cops. Even 21 Jump Street didn't have any moments of them being great cops. This movie is just a mess. No intention, no story, no great moments, no great laughs.

IMDb - Lets Be Cops (6.7)
Wikipedia - Lets Be Cops
Rotten Tomatoes - Lets Be Cops (19%)
Amazon.ca - Lets Be Cops

REVIEW: Drinking Buddies

6/10 - Everyone gets drunk. I bet you weren't expecting that. 

Previously I put this in my "Most Anticipated Movie Whatever" list meaning - I had high expectations.

I was wrong. It wasn't that great.

Ok, ok. There was some good direction, and some great actors, but at the end of the day it was boring!

I like a movie that focuses on the mundane, making natural dialogue a priority and telling more grounded stories of everyday people. From what I understand writer/director Joe Swanberg specializes in naturalistic improvisational style. I also have a huge appreciation for low-budget filmmaking. Drinking Buddies tries to pull on all those strings for me, but at the end of the day, it's a jump that doesn't quite stick the landing.

I got to know these characters, I became invested in their lives and wanted to know more. I thought it balked at the end and didn't get there for me. This wasn't unsatisfying, but just uninteresting. It develops beautifully but by the final act, it became a flat story. Maybe the stunted action was meant to be real, but there are ways to do that without making me want to fall asleep. For me it's an incomplete emotional story.

I think I need to dole out some compliments, so I will say that I think the acting was superb. I've always considered the sign of a good actor to be conveying a range of emotions without dialogue. Across the board, this is a talented group of people.

I also genuinely appreciate the journey that it tried to go on. Relationships are complicated, and exploring the evolving relationship of friends was very smart. This script taps into an experience that will relate to a lot of people. I think there are a lot of stories like this that haven't been told on screen.

Drinking Buddies is most memorable to me for having great potential. I don't see nearly enough drama's that are grounded, not high concept or melodramatic. I want more real humans in movies who say things like "I just got really nervous" or for the silence to say more than the people. I want stories about women, and stories about real life and not cliches. I want more movies like this. But better.

IMDB - Drinking Buddies (6.0)
Wikipedia - Drinking Buddies
Rotten Tomatoes - Drinking Buddies (69%)
Amazon.ca - Drinking Buddies