Two pals jointly dress up as cops after so many disappointments in life, it was quite sensational in the beginning until the newly-minted heroes get tangled in a real life web of mobsters and dirty detectives, they must put their fake badges on the line.
Let's be clear: No one should choose this movie. It's a title in search of a plot. It could also have been called Let's Be Funnier, Let's Be Directed, Let's Be 15 to 30 Minutes Shorter, Let's Be 22 Jump Street.
It's hard not to appreciate the pic's devil-may-care attitude, Johnson's prickly-but-likable screen persona, and Wayans' effortless channeling of his famous father.
This notion might have worked perfectly well in sketch form, but stretched out to feature length - in a film that's overlong at nearly two hours - it grows thin, repetitive and wearying.
"You've been watching too many movies," says a detective (Andy Garcia) during an interrogation in "Let's Be Cops." The same could be said for the filmmakers, who hit predictable beats in this disposable comedy.
At this point Let's Be Cops loses much of its humour and starts looking like a film Liam Neeson will turn up in any time soon. That's a pity because the first half, about two doofuses playing police, is funny and occasionally sharp.
The chillingly gung-ho darkness that Johnson lends his comic riffs would be the story, if only the director, Luke Greenfield, didn't play the movie solely for laughs, which are few and far between.
