The old saying, “clothes make the man,” has been altered slightly for a new comedy starring “New Girl’s” alum Damon Wayons Jr. and Jake Johnson. The pair play friends Justin and Ryan, thirty-somethings trying unsuccessfully to make a go of it in Los Angeles.
A masquerade party changes everything for them. Suited up as policemen they soon realize that people treat them differently when they wear the badge. Walking down Sunset Strip they discover that women really do love a man in uniform and for the first time since they moved to California from small town Ohio, they aren’t invisible.
On a lark they use their fake badges to break up an actual crime, a shakedown by a gang on a small restaurant. The bad guys flee, and bolstered by his first bust Ryan embraces the charade, buying a cop car on eBay, sewing sergeant’s patches on his uniform and going on out real life police calls. Justin wants to hang up the uniform before the situation gets out of control, but Ryan is determined to bring down the leader of the shakedown gang, a violent thug named Mossi (James D’Arcy). When things get out of control Justin calls Officer Segars (Rob Riggle). “It started off as fun,” he says, “but now we need help from real cops.”
“Let’s Be Cops” isn’t really a police story, nor is it, by the ratio of minutes-to-laughs, really a comedy. It falls somewhere in between. It’s actually about self-worth, power, respect and getting in over your head with a bit of satire thrown in. The leads have great chemistry and Riggle is always worth a look, but as buddy-buddy as the characters are, it isn’t as funny as “21 Jump Street.”
The high energy screwball tone of the first hour makes way for a low-rent looking “Bad Boys” homage in the final half-hour, becoming the very kind of movie it attempted to satirize in the first place.
There are a couple of drinking games to be played while watching the boozy new Olivia Wilde movie, appropriately titled “Drinking Buddies.”
The obvious game would be to take a drink every time anyone in the film has a beer or shot. The end result of this game would be a Saturday night of a long weekend style buzz and a Sunday morning hangover.
Or, you could take a sip every time there is any sexual tension between any of the characters. The end result of this game would be a Hunter S Thompson style bender where enough alcohol to float a boat would be consumed.
Luke (Jake Johnson) and Kate (Olivia Wilde), microbrewery co-workers and drinking buddies, enjoy spending time together before, during and after work. They have great chemistry but there’s a problem, they’re both in relationships. Luke and Jill (Anna Kendrick) are talking about marriage while Kate and Chris (Ron Livingston) are a study in opposites.
A trip to a remote cottage reveals cracks in the facades of the relationships, but will the four way flirting lead to break ups or make ups?
“Drinking Buddies'” story seems to telegraph itself in the first half hour, but director Joe Swanberg and the cast wipe away any preconceptions with a story that doesn’t go where you expect it to. It completely subverts the Rom Com Rulebook, connecting the dots in an unexpected and interesting way.
The cast is uniformly strong, but Wilde and Johnson hand in revelatory performances that bring their characters to life. They reveal themselves subtly, through natural performances and (seemingly) improvised dialogue. Better still is the film’s final scene, played completely in silence that reveals as much about friendship and love as any romantic comedy can in 90 minutes.
“Drinking Buddies” feels remarkably real—except I don’t believe Wilde could drink that much beer and hang on to her girlish figure—and plays like a romantic comedy for people who hate romantic comedies.
The old saying, “clothes make the man,” has been altered slightly for a new comedy starring “New Girl’s” alum Damon Wayons Jr. and Jake Johnson. The pair play friends Justin and Ryan, thirty-somethings trying unsuccessfully to make a go of it in Los Angeles.
