Social Icons

Coffee & Kareem (2020)

Coffee & Kareem (2020)


2/10


Starring
Ed Helms
Terrence Little Gardenhigh
Betty Gilpin
Taraji P. Henson


Directed by Michael Dowse


Coffee & Kareem is a cumbersome waste of an action comedy from Netflix, attempting to blend the buddy cop genre with the dynamic of a 12-year-old and an adult officer. Unfortunately, it’s a poorly written movie, with humor so crude it becomes downright off-putting.

When Coffee & Kareem begins, it might remind you of the 2019 comedy Good Boys. Initially, it feels similar, but as the story progresses, it quickly becomes irritating and unnerving. The vulgarity from the children in just the first five minutes was so excessive that it made me uncomfortable.

I decided to stick with the movie after recognizing Betty Gilpin from The Hunt (2020)—I had been curious to see her in another role. Sadly, despite her efforts, along with those of the rest of the cast, the film turned out to be a disappointing outing.

The premise—about a 12-year-old on the run with his mother’s boyfriend after witnessing a murder—sounds promising on paper but fails to deliver.

The story follows Kareem, a boy who despises his mom’s new boyfriend, Coffee, a police officer. This hatred grew when he came home and saw them having sex, he decided then he had to do something to end their relationship. So, he started asking around and was able to track down someone who could “take care of” Coffee. However, when Kareem attempts to arrange this, he witnesses a murder. Gunshots draw Coffee into the scene, and the two are forced to flee from the bad guys. Coffee, already dealing with a bad reputation at the police department, finds himself in even deeper trouble. Add to that, Kareem’s mother is not happy to find out that her son was on the run with her boyfriend.

The writers of this movie decided to abandon any sense of innocence, replacing it with crude jokes and relentless vulgarity. This choice made the film difficult to watch, and at times, I wanted to turn it off. Ultimately, curiosity got the better of me, but I regret sitting through it.

With its excessive bad language and gratuitous violence, this is a movie I wouldn’t recommend to anyone. The movie has no point, there is basically nothing about this movie that you can hold on to and say, “that can happen.”  The lack of realism makes it even harder to enjoy the movie or have a memorable experience. Do you know how bad a movie has to be, that your brain immediately formats the memory of you seeing it?

0 comments:

Post a Comment

Disclaimer

All images featured on this site are the property of their respective copyright owners. They are used solely for illustrative and commentary purposes under fair use principles. This site is a personal blog, unaffiliated with or endorsed by any copyright holders. If you are the copyright owner of an image featured here and wish to have it removed, please contact me directly, and I will address your request promptly.