Gannett News Service

Live and learn.

The very idea of a buddy-cop comedy starring Bruce Willis and Tracy Morgan as partners sounds like something ripe to make fun of.

But how can we, when director Kevin Smith beats us to the punch? Despite reasonable doubts, the wink-and-a-nod “Cop Out” isn’t all that bad.



Smith pushes Morgan even farther over the top than usual, reins Willis in (he mostly stands around, looking bemused at Morgan’s antics) and comes up with a movie that makes little sense, is dumb when it’s not being stupid and yet is still at times laugh-out-loud funny.



A scene at the beginning of the film makes Smith’s agenda clear. Paul (Morgan) insists on interrogating a suspect. Jimmy (Willis) watches as Paul runs through a series of movie quotes, ranging from the semi-appropriate “Heat” to the ridiculous “Star Wars” to, well, to “Dirty Dancing.”



It’s an homage, Paul explains, an explanation that would carry more weight if he pronounced the word right. No matter. It’s funny, with Morgan growing increasingly manic, saliva flying as he calls up one quote after another.



So does Smith, dipping into the well of ­­practically every buddy-cop comedy you’ve ever seen, and doing so with glee. There’s plenty of menace and violence, like in the “Beverly Hills Cop” and “48 Hours” movies. But most scenes are played for laughs, and a surprising number hit their mark.



­Jimmy’s daughter (Michelle Trachtenberg) is getting married, and wants an expensive wedding he can’t pay for, particularly after he and Paul get suspended for botching a bust. Her smarmy stepdad (Jason Lee) is willing to foot the bill, but the proud Jimmy won’t hear of it. Instead, he decides he’ll sell a rare baseball card. But the memorabilia store he’s gone to for an appraisal is robbed, by the addled Dave (an out-and-out hilarious Seann William Scott), who makes off with the card.



Dave will prove useful to Jimmy and Paul (shades of “Lethal Weapon”) as they work their way to Poh Boy (Guillermo Diaz), a drug dealer with designs on expanding his empire. He also has a fascination with baseball memorabilia, including, naturally, rare cards.



If Jimmy and Paul can find a missing Mercedes for Poh Boy, he’ll give them the card. Finding the car is no problem for them (one of their leads is a blue-mouthed kid car thief), but there is, of course, more to it than that.



“Cop Out” isn’t as good as the films it continually salutes (“Lethal Weapon,” “Beverly Hills Cop” and, especially, “48 Hours”). But it is good at what it does. Smith brings his usual pop-culture sensibility to it.



Smith is not making fun of the movies he references. He’s paying them offbeat tribute. An homage, you might say.



But it’s funnier when Morgan says it.



Rated R for pervasive language including sexual references, violence and brief sexuality. (2 out of 4 stars.)