Coffee and Kareem (Movie Review)

A police detective and a street-wise teen with father issues join forces to expose crooked cops, drug dealing and cold-blooded murder in this all-or-nothing comedy. The premise is cliche, the jokes are largely played for laughs and the slapstick violence is brutal and hammy at times. But director Michael Dowse (TV’s “Stuber”) knows what he’s doing and there are some genuinely amusing scenes.

Ed Helms is a bit more comfortable in the role of the incompetent cop than he usually is and co-star Taraji P. Henson is a hoot as his nutty girlfriend. But it’s been a long time since either of them has done anything particularly fresh or interesting. They’re joined by a talented cast including a delightful Betty Gilpin as a dirty cop and Terrence Little Gardenhigh as the knuckleheaded teen.

The film gets off to a slow start with a series of scenes that look like first takes. But soon enough the action kicks in. It’s all standard fare from there as Coffee and Kareem get pursued on foot and in cars by gun-wielding can’t-shoot-straight drug dealers straight out of a comic version of Reserved Dogs.

After an escape that requires them to break into a trunk, they track down a cop who framed the murdered cop for the drugs. He tries to convince them that the real crook is Johnson, who they know from video footage. He tries to turn on them by telling them he was a victim of sexual assault. Coffee distracts him by tasering him and knocking him out, then carries him back to the car. They follow the trail of bodies to a gang hideout where they’re surrounded by armed guards, one of whom turns out to be a dirty cop.