The mismatched buddy cop movie seems to be alive and well still as a genre, even if it inspires little faith in the films that are produced. That could hopefully change since a new film is going to be coming sometime starring WWE star John Cena and Kumail Nanjiani. Both men have been highly successful as of late and have established their careers in a way that should allow for at least some faith to be given to the film so that it might get off the ground at the box office.
To be honest though the buddy cop movie, particularly those that are mismatched, tend to get old very quickly, mostly because it’s been done so many times before. There’s nothing inherently wrong with such movies since Lethal Weapon and even The Other Guys did very well in the box office. But as Lethal Weapon showed the market for such a film can drop very quickly. By the time they were in their fourth film the interest had died down quite a bit and without the inclusion of Rene Russo, Jet Li, and the continuing annoyance that was Joe Pesci they might not have done even half as well as they did. The third installment was only memorable for a few things and none of them were the main villain.
This film could be something if the director decides to go off on a route that pits the very different men against something that might actually seem challenging and engaging to the audience. It doesn’t have to be a complete cerebral thriller but it would help matters if it did in fact challenge the audience just a bit. Of course there should be some drama in their lives since it helps people to relate to the characters on screen, and there should be something of a love interest for both of them or one of them that makes life just a little more interesting, and also difficult given their roles as cops. In other words the film could benefit from a dose of reality so that people might actually be interested in watching.
For Cena this could be another indication that he’s getting ready to transition from the WWE to Hollywood full time. After all he’s hardly been seen in the ring that often as of late, and one of the last times was when he lost to Roman Reigns, sort of a passing the torch moment to the younger wrestler. Cena has been in films before but it’s usually been right back to the ring when he was done. This almost feels like he’s getting ready to say goodbye to wrestling full time, much as the Rock, Dwayne Johnson, did several years ago.
Nanjiani is coming off of great performance in The Big Sick, and is set to really break out as a superstar in Hollywood. This pairing couldn’t hurt his chances of gaining the kind of fame that could really broaden his career and make him a household name. As films go this could be decent to great, but the actors will definitely need to establish some sort of chemistry if it’s going to be worth watching.
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