It's the moment lots of you have been waiting for: the first proper look at Kevin Smith's new film, **Cop Out, starring Bruce Willis and 30 Rock's Tracy Morgan.
Formerly known as A Couple Of Dicks (stupid US TV networks and their advertising rules), the movie follows a pair of NYPD 'tecs as they get tangled up with mobsters, a stolen baseball card and a sexy female witness. Though you'd be hard pressed to guess most of that from this first glance.
And how is it? Er… Based on the evidence of the trailer, it would be better off if we referred to it as Studio Produced Cop Comedy Drama 6179. There are some slick titles, a fast-cut montage of scenes that show Willis and Morgan bickering (and point up that Sean William Scott and Morgan work better as comedy partners than the leading duo), with the processed feeling of generic comedy.
Not counting some of his work in TV - particularly the witty Reaper pilot - this is the first time that Kev is directing from someone else's script. And to be honest, it just seems lacking that Smith spark. True, some of the lines land - we giggled at the Batman line and Morgan's endless "no" when Scot tries to engage the cops in a Knock Knock joke - but there's not a lot here to give us confidence.
To give Smith credit, it's exactly as he promised, visuals-wise: leaps and bounds ahead of anything he's made before. But if you love his work, you never worry about the look, you're after the voice. And Cop Out, based purely on the brief moments we get here, just doesn't seem to have that.
Now we're just hoping Herr director and those behind the trailer have intentionally left out the best bits for when we see the whole thing…