WHAT’S IT ABOUT

A dedicated special investigator is forced to team up with a reckless demoted ex-detective to hunt down a killer.

MOVIESinMO REVIEW

Remember when buddy cop movies were everywhere? Films like Lethal Weapon, Rush Hour, and 48 Hours made us laugh and kept us on the edge of our seats. Those days feel long gone, and Netflix’s Almost Cops shows us exactly why this genre struggles today. This Dutch film tries really hard to bring back the magic of classic cop comedies, but it misses the mark in almost every way possible. Director Gonzalo Fernández Carmona plays things so safely that the movie feels like a poor copy of better films we’ve already seen a hundred times. The story follows Ramon, a community service officer in Rotterdam who dreams of becoming a hero like his father was. He gets stuck working with Jack, a bitter ex-detective who got demoted after his partner died, and he wouldn’t stop investigating the case. Here’s where things get predictable – Jack’s dead partner Kevin happens to be Ramon’s half-brother. So now these two completely different guys have to work together to solve the murder and expose a big conspiracy. Sound familiar? That’s because we’ve watched this exact story before, just with different actors and a different city. The movie doesn’t even try to put a fresh spin on the tired formula of pairing an eager rookie with a grumpy veteran. Ramon follows every rule while Jack breaks them all. They argue, they slowly learn to respect each other, and they eventually catch the bad guys. It feels literally like someone copied a buddy cop movie template and stuck their names in it. What makes Almost Cops worse is how confused it is about what kind of movie it wants to be. Sometimes it wants to be a serious drama about crime and corruption, and sometimes it acts like a silly slapstick comedy. The tone shifts so much that you’re never sure if you should be laughing or take it seriously. One moment you’re into a dramatic chase, the next someone is acting so ridiculous that it undercuts any serious mood. The film continually references buddy cop movies, almost like it knows it can’t compete with them. The endless name mentions should only make you think that you should be watching any one of the films that it mentions, because all those films look better than this. It’s like the filmmakers said, “hey remember when you loved Lethal Weapon? Well this is kind of like that, but not at all,”. The characters themselves bring nothing new. Ramon thinks and acts like every other by-the-book cop you’ve seen in a film. He’s enthusiastic and wants to do the right thing, but that’s about all there is to him. Jack is the standard grumpy older cop who’s seen too much and doesn’t trust anyone. Neither character has any interesting personality traits or memorable moments that make you care about what happens to them. The action scenes seem lazy and unoriginal. There is no danger or excitement because everything happens exactly as you think it would. The comedy doesn’t work as well because the jokes are awkwardly edgy or so tame that they’re barely jokes at all. Some scenes include weird visual gags that don’t make sense and only serve to confuse you more about what the movie is trying to accomplish. Even though the film has a mature rating, it doesn’t do anything meaningful with that freedom. The characters swear occasionally, but it feels forced and doesn’t add anything to their personalities or the story. It’s like the writers thought adding bad language would automatically make the movie funnier or more adult, but they forgot to actually write good jokes or interesting dialogue. The acting doesn’t do the story any favors either. Jandino Asporaat makes an effort to make Ramon endearing to audiences, and he succeeds to some extent (though I still don’t think his character is a believable person). However, Werner Kolf as Jack spoke his lines like he was reading from a script for the first time. He is so stiff and lifeless (in a movie that is supposed to feature a hardened, experienced cop who has been through some awful experiences) that it was hard for me to believe. The supporting cast doesn’t do much better. The bad guys are clear right from the start, and while the actors playing them make an attempt, none embody any of the menace or charisma that are essential to the villain. There seems to be no understanding of what characters are supposed to do, even in the minor roles, everyone seems to be going through the motions. The worst thing about Almost Cops is how predictable everything is. From the moment we meet Ramon (at the very start of the movie) when he is daydreaming, you basically know how it’s going to end. Throughout the movie, he is on a routine investigation that plays out in the most obvious way imaginable, with the ‘clues’ and events basically telling you straight up who the bad guys are, which completely ruins any notion of mystery or excitement. Even the ending is ridiculous for being so predictable, with Ramon receiving his grand hero moment, and Jack has learned to trust him! Dutch cinema has produced some interesting films over the years, but Almost Cops doesn’t represent the country’s filmmaking at its best. The movie feels like it was made by people who understand the basic structure of buddy cop comedies but completely missed what made the good ones special. Great buddy cop movies work because the chemistry between the leads makes you invest in their relationship and their mission. Here, that chemistry never develops, leaving you with two actors going through familiar motions without any real connection. The film also seems to have been made with good intentions about community policing and working together, but these themes get lost in the messy execution. Instead of creating characters and situations that naturally explore these ideas, the movie just forces them into a generic crime story that doesn’t support any deeper meaning. Almost Cops proves that nostalgia alone isn’t enough to make a good movie. Just copying the surface elements of successful films without understanding what made them work in the first place results in something that feels hollow and pointless. The buddy cop genre can still work when filmmakers bring fresh ideas and genuine enthusiasm to the material, but this movie shows what happens when they don’t. If you’re looking for a good buddy cop comedy, skip this one and watch one of the classics instead. Almost Cops will only remind you how much better other movies in this genre can be, and that’s not a feeling any film should leave you with.

OUR RATING – A DISAPPOINTING 3