Willis Chases Stolen Baseball Card in "Cop Out"

Plump director Kevin Smith was recently kicked off a Southwest Airlines jet because he couldn't comfortably squeeze into his seat. Size may also a problem for him at work.

Once an indie-film darling, Smith has gone mainstream with his big-budget comedy Cop Out. A buddy movie starring Bruce Willis and Tracy Morgan, it's witless, clueless and endless.

Cop Out was obviously inspired by 48 Hrs. and Lethal Weapon, which also featured interracial crime- fighting duos. (Yes, I know that Eddie Murphy played a convict in 48 Hrs., but he's sprung on a two-day pass to help Nick Nolte track down two cop killers.)

However, Smith's film lacks the ingredients that turned those 1980s films into blockbusters: scabrously funny dialogue, sizzling action scenes and chemistry between the stars. Willis' deadpan delivery and Morgan's infantile exuberance are so mismatched they might as well be acting in different movies.

Willis plays Jimmy, a burned-out detective about to sell his prized 1952 Andy Pafko baseball card to pay for his daughter's wedding. His partner Paul (Morgan) is a paranoid goofball who suspects his wife is cheating on him.

After masked robbers steal Jimmy's card at a memorabilia store, the search for the culprits turns into a wacky adventure involving a Mexican gang leader, a stoner thief, a stolen car and a valuable flash drive.

The only remotely humorous scene takes place at the start of the film, when Paul terrorizes a suspect in the interrogation room by mimicking lines from Heat, Scarface, Training Day and his other favorite flicks. I'm not counting the scene where Morgan, during an undercover sting, runs around in a Gumbyesque costume disguised as a mobile phone.

While screenwriters Robb and Mark Cullen must shoulder much of the blame for their sophomoric story, Smith makes it even worse with his lazy pacing and meandering cameras.

Smith started out making funky little pictures like Clerks and Mallrats in which he played Silent Bob, a bearded slacker who wore a dark overcoat and a backward baseball cap. Hollywood just doesn't suit him.