LET’S BE COPS (AND LET’S IMPROVE THE SCRIPT)

When you have an idea for a comedy film it’s important to make sure that what you have is enough for a film and not just a TV sketch. Two friends pretending to be cops is not a film, it’s a starting point for an idea. This is a shame because leads Jake Johnson and Damon Wayans JR actually have quite good chemistry and with a stronger script this could have been so much more. After our have-a-go-heroes don their cop uniforms and go out on the town for the first time, it quickly becomes apparent that the writers are about to run out of ideas. The rest of the film lurches from sketch to sketch while trying to keep a semblance of a plot. “But Paul”, I hear you say in my head, “it’s just a silly comedy, don’t take it so seriously”. It may be a “silly comedy” but the premise is strong enough that had some actual effort been expended then it could have been so much more (even the title shows a lack of effort). By the time we get to the last twenty minutes, and the film struggles to pull itself together, it’s just kind of sad. We get the usual “what have we learned today” stuff that seems required and a pretty flat ending. Let’s be clear, it’s not that there are no laughs in Lets be Cops, it’s just that they’re the exception rather than the rule FINAL VERDICT 4/10 Potential concept wasted.

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Unknown 07:50  No comment

AS ABOVE SO BELOW (or an above-average concept let down by a below-average script)

When it comes to creepy settings you can’t get much better than the Paris catacombs; long miles of twisting tunnels containing the bones of Parisian’s who have shuffled off this mortal coil (are you planning to support your own city in this way?) Add to this the claustrophobic and chaotic style of the ‘found footage’ movie and you would think you have a winning formula …..…you would think. Let’s be clear, there is quite a lot of creepy suspense in this film as our intrepid explorers (or lemmings) are hounded by visions from their own past and have to squeeze through cramped bone-filled openings. Many of the surreal images (a telephone ringing, a piano in the depths of the city) create a good Twilight Zone atmosphere. The problems come from the framing story which involves, and I’m being dead serious here, the search for the philosopher’s stone (copyright J.K. Rowling). The horror/found footage genre, which involves a lot of breathless running eg. Blair Witch Project, does not sit very comfortably with explanations about alchemical symbols or the history of the underground. If you want to make such a film, even a found footage one, then make it as an urban Indiana Jones-type movie; if you want a Paris ghost story make that your focus. What I found especially frustrating is that I enjoyed both stories simultaneously and, had these been their own distinct movie, could have seen myself enjoying it a lot more. It’s a shame to see an inventive concept fail to live up to its potential like this. One wonders if a good script doctor had been involved would things have turned out a little differently? FINAL VERDICT 5/10

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Unknown 03:08  No comment