Coffee & Kareem
If you ’ve ever wondered whatCop and a Halfwould be like re - imagined by the director ofGoonandStuber , welp , it now exists and is calledCoffee & Kareem . The photographic film has a muckle in vulgar withStuberespecially ( the right way down to its diddle - on - news claim ) , yet the handwriting by Shane Mack - which made the Black List in 2014 - play out as an R - rated riff on Henry Winkler ’s family comedy and similarly high concept send - ups of ' fourscore buddy tropes from the ' 90s likeStop ! Or My Mom Will flash . And while it ( generally ) clears the low bar set by those movies , your mileage may vary bet on how much or small you like helmer Michael Dowse ’s previous output . Slapdash to a geological fault , Coffee & Kareemis an pert prison term - undoer that ca n’t make up its mind about whether it ’s sophomoric or subversive .
coiffe in modern - day Detroit , Coffee & Kareemsends aloof , but well - intentioned , police police officer James Coffee ( Ed Helms ) on a raging drive across the city after he match to foot up his lady friend Vanessa ’s ( Taraji P. Henson ) 12 - year previous son Kareem ( Terrence Little Gardenhigh ) from his schooltime one afternoon . Determined to scare Coffee off for salutary , Kareem - an extremely foul - mouthed draw a bead on rapper - tries to rent some local reprehensible fugitives to intimidate him , only to walk in on them excruciate and murdering a dirty cop . allow for with little other choice , Coffee and Kareem reluctantly team up in ordering to protect Vanessa and estimate out how far this corruption move within the police section .
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To its course credit , Coffee & Kareemis perfectly aware of its own fatuousness , and neither Dowse nor his mould ever take anything that happen too seriously . But at the same fourth dimension , that ’s also the elemental issue ; the activeness sequences are randomly constructed ( with limited attention pay to the visuals and blue-pencil frame in on incomprehensible ) and the actors regularly recur to yell louder to make the film ’s gag seem peculiar than they are . These are more or less the same flawsStuberhad and , like he did there , Dowse go on everything moving at a breakneck speed to make up for the uneven filmmaking , while at the same time give enough at the wall to see at least a fistful of gags land . He ’s still guilty of plow to cheap liquid body substance as the default though , whether it ’s the flick ’s comedically free bloodshed , Kareem give notice Coffee to use homophobic menace to make himself seem tough , or a bonding view between the leads at a stripper club - a detour which is , oddly , far less noteworthy thanStuber ’s sojourn to a strip joint .
The similarity betweenCoffee & KareemandStuberdon’t end with their way and specific plot beats , either . Both films nation in a weird spot where they ’re intelligibly attempt to deconstruct ' eighty buddy action - clowning cliches and the masculinity of their virile role ( for better or worse , the former also take jabs at racism and constabulary brutality ) , yet often end up indulging in the backwards conventions they ’re poking fun at . There is something exalt about the wayCoffee & Kareemmakes the loud - mouthed half of its buddy couplet a literal juvenile , but it ’s still a one - line jest that runs its course fairly quickly . Coffee is a likewise unmemorable addition to Helms ' soundbox of work bringing genial beta males to living , though he does a fine job play off of Gardenhigh in maliciousness of the thin material . As for Henson and Betty Gilpin ( costarring here as one of Coffee ’s fellow officers , who revel in dragging him ) , they make the most of those few here and now where they ’re allowed to smoothen by going completely over the top , for both full and high-risk .
AfterStuberdisappointed at the box office last summer , it ’s probably for the betterCoffee & Kareemwent flat to Netflix from the get - go . Dowse has a religious cult following ( largely thanks toGoon ) that can enjoy his latest offering from the safety and comfort of their theater , where the barrier to entry is lower anyway . However , those who ’re frustrated by his previous picture likeStuberandTake Me Home Tonightwill probably have the same problems with this one and the film director ’s preserve use of making films which seem unable to make up one’s mind if they ’re modern takes on popular ' 80s genres or , essentially , ' 80s motion picture made in the present - daylight . All the crass punchlines and comically excessive violence in the populace ca n’t disguise this identity confusion atCoffee & Kareem ’s core .
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Coffee & Kareemis now streaming on Netflix . It is 88 minute of arc retentive and is rated TV - MA .
Coffee & Kareem is an action - drollery film direct by Michael Dowse . It follows Detroit cop James Coffee , played by Ed Helms , as he team up up with his girlfriend ’s Logos , Kareem ( Terrence Little Gardenhigh ) , to take down a grave drug hoop . The motion picture explores themes of criminal offense and unconvincing partnerships while incorporating humor and activity in equal measure .
Coffee & Kareem is an action-comedy film directed by Michael Dowse. It follows Detroit cop James Coffee, played by Ed Helms, as he teams up with his girlfriend’s son, Kareem (Terrence Little Gardenhigh), to take down a dangerous drug ring. The film explores themes of crime and unlikely partnerships while incorporating humor and action in equal measure.
