''Cops & Robbersons'' is a 1994 American

crime comedy film Crime films, in the broadest sense, is a film genre inspired by and analogous to the crime fiction literary genre. Films of this genre generally involve various aspects of crime and its detection. Stylistically, the genre may overlap and combine ...

directed by Michael Ritchie, starring

Chevy Chase Cornelius Crane "Chevy" Chase (; born October 8, 1943) is an American comedian, actor and writer. He became a key cast member in the first season of ''Saturday Night Live'', where his recurring ''Weekend Update'' segment became a staple of the ...

Jack Palance Jack Palance ( ; born Volodymyr Palahniuk ( uk, Володимир Палагню́к); February 18, 1919 – November 10, 2006) was an American actor known for playing tough guys and villains. He was nominated for three Academy Awards, all fo ...

Dianne Wiest Dianne Evelyn Wiest (; born March 28, 1948) is an American actress. She has won two Academy Awards for Best Supporting Actress for 1986’s ''Hannah and Her Sisters'' and 1994’s ''Bullets over Broadway'' (both of which were directed by Woody ...

, and

Robert Davi Robert John Davi (born 1953) is an American actor, singer and filmmaker. Over the course of his acting career, Davi has performed in more than 130 films. Among his most known roles are opera-singing heavy Jake Fratelli in ''The Goonies'' (1985), ...

Plot

When the police discover that a mob hitman has moved in next door to the Robbersons, they want to find out what he is up to. So they set up a stakeout in the Robbersons' home. Hard-nosed, tough-as-nails Jake Stone and his young partner Tony Moore are assigned to the stakeout, but now it is a question of whether Jake can last long enough to capture the bad guys. The Robbersons want to help, and by doing so they drive Jake crazy.

Cast

as Norman Robberson *

as Detective Jake Stone *

as Helen Robberson *

as Horace Osborn * David Barry Gray as Detective Tony Moore *

Jason James Richter Jason James Richter (born January 29, 1980) is an American actor and musician. He is best known for his role in the ''Free Willy'' film series as Jesse, the boy who befriends Willy the orca. Early life Richter was born on January 29, 1980, in M ...

as Kevin Robberson *

Fay Masterson Fay Masterson (born 15 April 1974) is an English people, English actress and voice actress. She is best known for her roles as Head Girl in ''The New Adventures of Pippi Longstocking, List of The Last Ship characters#Andrea Garnett, Andrea Gar ...

as Cindy Robberson *

Miko Hughes Miko John Hughes (born February 22, 1986) is an American actor known for his film roles as a child, such as Gage Creed in ''Pet Sematary'' (1989), ''Kindergarten Cop'' (1990), ''Apollo 13'' (1995), ''Spawn'' (1997), ''Mercury Rising'' (1998), '' ...

as Billy Robberson *

Richard Romanus Richard Romanus (born Richard Joseph Romanos; February 8, 1945) is an American actor. Among other roles, he has appeared in Martin Scorsese's ''Mean Streets'' and provided voices for Ralph Bakshi's animated films ''Wizards (film), Wizards'' and ' ...

as Fred Lutz * Sal Landi as Jerry Callahan * Jack Kehler as Caniff *

M. Emmet Walsh Michael Emmet Walsh (born March 22, 1935) is an American actor who has appeared in over 200 films and television series, including small but important supporting roles in dozens of major studio features of the 1970s and 1980s. He starred in ''Bl ...

as Captain Ted Corbett (uncredited)

Production

The script for ''Cops & Robbersons'' was written on spec by Bernie Somers which Channel Productions purchased in August of 1992.

Reception

''Cops & Robbersons'' received generally negative reviews. On

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wang ...

, it has an approval rating of 14% based on 21 reviews, with an average rating of 3.4/10.

Roger Ebert Roger Joseph Ebert (; June 18, 1942 – April 4, 2013) was an American film critic, film historian, journalist, screenwriter, and author. He was a film critic for the ''Chicago Sun-Times'' from 1967 until his death in 2013. In 1975, Ebert beca ...

gave the film 2 out of 4 stars, referring to it as "one more variation on the FOW movie, so called because the plot involves a Fish Out of the Water". He singled out a scene in which Chase's character smuggles police officers into his home and snatches a cat from his wife, commenting: Commented Richard Harrington of ''

The Washington Post ''The Washington Post'' (also known as the ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'') is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C. It is the most widely circulated newspaper within the Washington metropolitan area and has a large nati ...

'': Chris Hicks of the ''

Deseret News The ''Deseret News'' () is the oldest continuously operating publication in the American west. Its multi-platform products feature journalism and commentary across the fields of politics, culture, family life, faith, sports, and entertainment. Th ...

'' opined that "Norman is the most ridiculous sitcom husband and father to grace the big screen since . . . well, since

Clark Griswold ''National Lampoon's Vacation'' film series is a comedy film series initially based on John Hughes' short story "Vacation '58" that was originally published by '' National Lampoon'' magazine. The series is distributed by Warner Bros. and consists ...

, of the "

National Lampoon's Vacation ''National Lampoon's Vacation'', sometimes referred to as simply ''Vacation'', is a 1983 American road trip comedy film directed by Harold Ramis starring Chevy Chase, Beverly D'Angelo, Imogene Coca, Randy Quaid, John Candy, and Christie Brinkle ...

pictures An image is a visual representation of something. It can be two-dimensional, three-dimensional, or somehow otherwise feed into the visual system to convey information. An image can be an artifact, such as a photograph or other two-dimensiona ...

. And since both Norman and Clark are played by Chevy Chase, why not? They're both dumb and clumsy and have dysfunctional families, and they both pretend that everything's OK. But where the "Vacation" pictures had some satiric bite to offset the silliness—well, the first one did—"Cops and Robbersons" is just stupid. Loaded with ill-timed pratfalls and dopey physical shtick, it's movies like this that give slapstick a bad name."

Janet Maslin Janet R. Maslin (born August 12, 1949) is an American journalist, best known as a film and literary critic for ''The New York Times''. She served as a ''Times'' film critic from 1977 to 1999 and as a book critic from 2000 to 2015. In 2000 Maslin ...

of ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

'' lamented that the film was "even more unfunny than his disastrous talk show", calling it "a Chase vehicle with four flat tires"

Year-end lists

* Top 10 worst (listed alphabetically, not ranked) – Mike Mayo, ''

The Roanoke Times ''The Roanoke Times'' is the primary newspaper in Southwestern Virginia and is based in Roanoke, Virginia, United States. It is published by Lee Enterprises. In addition to its headquarters in Roanoke, it maintains a bureau in Christiansburg, ...

Box office

The film debuted poorly at the box office, earning $3.7 million and coming in second place behind ''

Four Weddings and a Funeral ''Four Weddings and a Funeral'' is a 1994 British romantic comedy film directed by Mike Newell. It is the first of several films by screenwriter Richard Curtis to feature Hugh Grant, and follows the adventures of Charles (Grant) and his circle ...

''. The film grossed just $11,391,093 in the domestic box office from an unknown budget.

References

External links

* * * 1994 films 1990s buddy comedy films American buddy comedy films American buddy cop films Films directed by Michael Ritchie 1990s police comedy films TriStar Pictures films Films scored by William Ross 1990s buddy cop films 1994 comedy films 1990s English-language films 1990s American films {{1990s-comedy-film-stub