Much like the romantic comedy, the action buddy comedy is one of the most popular movie genres, with its generic formula that Hollywood has been tirelessly recycling since it was popularised by the 70 and 80s. The formula usually falls on comedy and action elements with plots involving two people of conflicting personalities who are forced to work together to solve a crime.
We all probably have seen way too many of these movies in our lives, some decent but mostly terrible. And the latest addition to this subgenre is the Netflix's original action comedy Coffee & Kareem. Directed by Michael Dowse and written by Shane Mack, Coffee & Kareem stars The Hangover trilogy alum Ed Helms along with Betty Gilpin, Andrew Bachelor, Taraji P. Henson and new-kid actor Terrence Little Gardenhigh.
The influence of Coffee & Kareem is obvious -- the ads and posters featuring Helms and Little Gardenhigh in classic poses fashioning the designs and fonts from Beverly Hills Cop, 48 Hrs. and Die Hard, which clearly try to get your nostalgic attention for those retro R-rated cop movies. But despite the 80s throwback and some funny moments, Coffee & Kareem unfortunately feels forced in recreating the same old formula with raunchy jokes that were kind of inappropriate.
The movie tells the story of a 12-year-old foul-mouthed boy called Kareem (Little Gardenhigh), who is upset with his mother, who is dating police officer James Coffee (Helms). Kareem then makes a plan to get rid of his mother's new boyfriend by hiring criminals to beat him up. But as he goes to organise that meeting he accidentally exposes a secret network of criminal activity, making himself and his family its latest target. So in order to protect his mom, Kareem is forced to team up with Coffee on this dangerous crime-fighting mission.
Of course, I believe some people will enjoy this movie because it's a very easy watch. It's the kind of movie you don't get much from, but in return you don't have to put much thought into it either. While the movie is filled with over-the-top satirical humour that some people might be looking for, you have to admit that this is a poorly-written movie in both character and story development.
The relationship between the two protagonists is what carries the film, and that's what you expect to keep your interest throughout. But while the performances between actors aren't bad, the overarching story isn't the best. It doesn't make sense in the context of these dire situations. For a buddy cop-movie, you're supposed to have this bond between these two characters and we're supposed to root for Coffee and Kareem and see the development between their friendship and the chemistry as the story goes. But here, you just don't feel any sort of emotion or connection between them at all as the story progresses. They hated each other throughout the film, but ended up friends in the last two minutes?
Helms' performance as Officer Coffee was okay, but again, not really much development there. He's kind of just a typical character -- a well meaning boyfriend who's trying to connect with his girlfriend's bratty son. He's always helping him out, despite not having any obligations to this practice other than because he loves the child's mother, and this is a cliché at best.
Coffee & Kareem is also not suitable for children for many reasons. There is a lot of kind of bogus, shock-value humour that might turn a lot of people off the film. I personally didn't like the comedic tone of the film in terms of the stereotypes and inappropriate jokes about sexual assault and child sexual abuse that are quite distasteful, considering that the main character is a child. It's a very hard R rating considering the little violence we see, but it's more the characters, especially that of Kareem, who is a disrespectful brat that spouts the F word every two or five minutes.
I don't know much about this young fella Little Gardenhigh prior to this film, but I sure hope he gets offered better roles than this one in the future because this Kareem character and the movie are hardly likeable.
- Coffee & Kareem
- Starring Ed Helms, Taraji P. Henson, Terrence Little Gardenhigh
- Directed by Michael Dowse
- Now streaming on Netflix
