Is trigger-happy comedy Let's Be Cops the worst-timed movie ever?

[presence]

http://www.theguardian.com/film/shortcuts/2014/aug/27/lets-be-cops-worst-timed-movie-michael-brown-police-ferguson
Is trigger-happy comedy Let's Be Cops the worst-timed movie ever? Released just days after the shooting of the unarmed teenager Michael Brown by US police, this film about dunce buddies pretending to be officers for fun feels out of touch



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http://static.guim.co.uk/sys-images/Film/Pix/pictures/2014/8/27/1409138291254/Backfiring---Jake-Johnson-012.jpg
Backfiring … Jake Johnson and Damon Wayans Jr in Let's Be Cops. Photograph: Frank Masi/AP/20th Century Fox



The new comedy (http://www.theguardian.com/film/comedy) Let's Be Cops (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ExciLtpHp74), in which two dunces exploit the power that comes from wearing police uniforms, includes numerous uncomfortable moments: the bit when one of the heroes does a comedy Asian-American accent, say, or when his girlfriend assumes he is gay because his wrist is limp. When he humiliates a group of suspected criminals by making them perform pelvic thrusts, it's all a shade too Abu Ghraib for comfort. But it's no fault of the film-makers that their movie is opening at a time when the reflex response to the words Let's Be Cops is: "Let's not."


The unarmed African-American teenager Michael Brown (http://www.theguardian.com/world/michael-brown-shooting) was shot dead by a white police officer in Ferguson, Missouri, on 9 August. Though this has nothing to do with Let's Be Cops, some scenes in the film can't help but provoke a shudder: the dumb duo (New Girl's Jake Johnson and Damon Wayans Jr) gawping excitedly at the arsenal of weapons now available to them, or spooking fellow diners when they brandish their guns in a pretend mealtime standoff. When one fake cop spies a gang of crooks and announces, "Those are the bad guys," the distinction is almost touching in its quaintness. One wonders how that line went down inside the many cinemas in Ferguson where the movie began playing only four days after Brown's death.


Let's Be Cops is a contender for the title of Most Unfortunately Timed Movie Release, but there are others. The Watch (http://www.theguardian.com/film/movie/148836/watch), about bumbling neighbourhood-watch patrol men, arrived shortly after the shooting of another black youth, Trayvon Martin (http://www.theguardian.com/world/trayvon-martin), in 2012, and was publicised by a trailer in which Jonah Hill pretended to gun down teens. Martin's killer was George Zimmerman, who happened to be … a neighbourhood-watch coordinator. Recently, the Australian disaster movie Deep Water (http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/aussie-flight-disaster-film-deep-690546) had its release postponed due to superficial similarities with the case of the missing Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 (http://www.theguardian.com/world/malaysia-airlines-flight-mh370).


The Good Son (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Good_Son_%28film%29), scripted by Ian McEwan (http://www.theguardian.com/books/ianmcewan), never received a UK cinema release because its tale of a malevolent child (played by Macaulay Culkin) was considered too redolent of the murder of James Bulger (http://www.theguardian.com/uk/bulger). Ben Affleck's thriller Gone Baby Gone (http://www.theguardian.com/film/2008/jun/08/drama) was shelved in the UK for a year due to its echoes of the disappearance of Madeleine McCann (http://www.theguardian.com/uk/madeleinemccann).


The destruction of the World Trade Centre inevitably had ramifications for any movies featuring terrorist plots on US soil (Collateral Damage (http://), Bad Company (http://www.theguardian.com/film/movie/92494/bad.company) and Big Trouble among them). The case of Let's Be Cops, though, is slightly different. It doesn't need to be pulled from screens or sent straight to Netflix without passing Go. A more equitable solution, not only for cinema but society in general, would simply be for the police to refrain at their earliest convenience from killing innocent people.


Let's Be Cops is on release in the US and UK now.

[NorthCarolinaLiberty]

This is totally different from a thug like Michael Brown. Big Bad Mike is a hood rat with a long criminal history. He tried to grab a cop's gun. He pummeled the officer, breaking bones in his face. Brown took off, but then came back to taunt the officer. Brown bull rushed the officer, so Brown had to be put down like the dog that he is. The officer never fired at a fleeing Brown because there were no bullets in Brown's back.

I will see this movie and laugh with joyful gaiety. Pass the popcorn, please.

[CaptUSA]

But it's no fault of the film-makers that their movie is opening at a time when the reflex response to the words Let's Be Cops is: "Let's not."


Um... I'm not sure where this author is living, but where I am, it seems like that's what all the kids want to be. Hell, it's like the default answer to the "what do you want to be when you grow up" question when the kid doesn't really know.

[Christian Liberty]

Um... I'm not sure where this author is living, but where I am, it seems like that's what all the kids want to be. Hell, it's like the default answer to the "what do you want to be when you grow up" question when the kid doesn't really know.

That's really unfortunate.

[Christian Liberty]

Perhaps the writer of the article is purposely using that as a way to change public opinion....

[Anti Federalist]

Um... I'm not sure where this author is living, but where I am, it seems like that's what all the kids want to be. Hell, it's like the default answer to the "what do you want to be when you grow up" question when the kid doesn't really know.

What else are you gonna be?

Not like there are a whole lot of opportunities out there for young men.

[SeanTX]

Um... I'm not sure where this author is living, but where I am, it seems like that's what all the kids want to be. Hell, it's like the default answer to the "what do you want to be when you grow up" question when the kid doesn't really know.

A lot of young people (especially young men) have a desire to belong to something that will boost their self-image and give them a sense of belonging. That's why many of them join street gangs, and the armed forces.

The police are the biggest, baddest street gang out there, so naturally it's going to attract the ones who are looking for good pay and bennies to go along with the image.

[kcchiefs6465]

What else are you gonna be?

Not like there are a whole lot of opportunities out there for young men.
Pick up cans.

Beg change.

They couldn't pay me enough to impede and/or ruin the lives of those trying to make ends meet. Ticketing single moms and shit. Those that have the stomach for all that should be ashamed. No matter the age.

[CaptUSA]

I think they just don't know what they want to do and "cop" seems like a good gig to them. You make a decent living, you get some sense of authority, and their friends and family respect that answer.

Cops shows have a huge presence on TV and movies. Usually, they are the hero, but even when they're not, they're central to the story. That kind of programming works wonders on young minds. Especially, when you add in that most of them are being "educated" by other government union employees.