I’m a diehard Kevin Smith fanboy, for better or for worse. But every movie he’s written or directed has been worth seeing to me. I was even one of the few who embraced Zack and Miri Make a Porno for the admirable piece of genius that it was. Point being that Smith has gathered a rabid fan base over the 15 years since Clerks made him more than just another face. On February 26^th, Smith will break tradition and release his first directorial that he did not write the script for.

The first title for Cop Out, about a retired New York police officer who hires his partner to sniff out a rare baseball card to fund his daughter’s wedding, was A Couple of Dicks. However due to the title issue with Zack and Miri (the “Make a Porno” suffix was cut off when the comedy hit DVD for mass appeal) the heading sadly had to change. What I love about Smith is that he’s fearless, and creates movies he knows will stir up controversy. Hell, we were talking about Dicks before, weren’t we?

Cop Out seems all too safe a name, and for that matter all too safe a movie. I can’t help but be unimpressed by both green band and red band trailers released for the film. The jokes seem tired, the premise is lame and has Bruce Willis played anyone in a movie lately who wasn’t a retired cop? The blame can’t be placed on Kevin Smith’s shoulders. That’s the burden of Robb and Mark Cullen, brothers-turned screenwriters with Cop Out. I’ve never heard of these two, although they have no experience at all doing anything movie-wise. They produced 17 and wrote four episodes of the Josh Duhamel-starring television crime drama Las Vegas. Should we be rest assured because they’ve written a few who-done-it TV episodes? I don’t know, but if their definition of a good case is something with Josh Duhamel then I think the Cullens have the same mindset as Michael Bay.

I’ll see Cop Out just because Kevin Smith directed it and, as it was also recently announced, took an 80% pay cut so the flick would get an R-rating. Even if this movie is a total bomb I won’t mark this is Smith’s failure. Up next he’s trying to make the horror Red State and a hockey film entitled Hit Somebody which some are insinuating is a passion project for him. Big-budgeted or not, this can’t be Kevin Smith selling out.

Check out the trailer below and tell me: is Cop Out worth seeing?