Quick Thoughts - Cop and 1/2 (1993)

11/21/13: On the surface, Cop and 1/2 is just another formulaic buddy cop movie. It has all of the cliches and routine plot twists that are expected. But when you get into sub-genres, the pleasure is in the variation, and somehow director Henry Winkler is able to make the same old tricks fresh again. Aging, cocky Burt Reynolds gets paired up with Norman D. Golden II, an eight-year old who obsessively watches cop dramas on TV and mimics the tough-guy act. It's unlikely that such a plot could work, but Golden actually has some acting intuition that elevates him from simply being a cute kid, and Reynolds fully commits to the role, playing the part with the right amount of sincerity, so what would have been a silly premise that gets old after the first act is transformed into a genuinely funny family film, and a legitimate entry in the buddy cop canon. ***