Line #16 Film/LetsBeCops


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7	[[quoteright:325:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/letsbecops_579.png]]
8	[[caption-width-right:325:[[{{Tagline}} Fake Cops. Real Trouble.]]]]
9	Ryan O'Malley (Creator/JakeJohnson) and Justin Miller (Creator/DamonWayansJr) aren't satisfied with their current situation. Justin is an ignored employee at a video game company, and Ryan is a jobless ex-football player with no real direction in life, mostly living off his royalties from being in an ad for herpes medication. The directionless feeling of their lives is only underscored when they attend their college reunion and mistake a masquerade ball for a costume party, showing up dressed as cops. On their way home, however, they discover that the costumes are real enough that they can fool basically anybody. Even ''actual cops.''
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11	The new found respect the outfit entails is exactly what Ryan has been looking for, and after studying Website/YouTube videos of police procedure and buying a used cop car off eBay, he drags a reluctant Justin along on their new "career" as LAPD officers.
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13	!!Tropes
14	* ALadyOnEachArm: How Mossi is introduced in the movie.
15	* AbhorrentAdmirer: Annie is this for Justin, who's also taken for. Ryan, on the other hand, basically fell in love with her.
16	* AllWomenAreLustful: One of the things the guys have to deal with is a CatFight because one of the sorority sisters cheated with another sister's boyfriend. Josie pretty much throws herself onto Justin when she got a chance to, prompting him to back off and claim that things escalated too quickly, and let's not even get into Annie.
17	-->'''Annie:''' If that little guy wasn't here, some seriously weird stuff would be happening right now.
18	* AxCrazy: Kasic is completely out of his tattooed gourd.
19	* BadBoss: ''Everyone'' hates Kasic, according to sources. He even punches the nose of one his guys.
20	* BaitAndSwitch: Justin (Who's disguised as Pupa) fights a man in Mossi's compound and defeats him. Mossi himself brings Ryan, making the viewers think that he's going to off him because of his [[ImposterForgotOneDetail different looking face]] and for beating a potential ally to his gang, but just loudly yells "Who's next?!" to the crowd, apparently impressed that "Pupa" has defeated a guy in a kickboxing match.
21	* BrickJoke: Justin jokes early in the movie that he'd like to meet the "6'1 Chinese guy" who could fit his "Officer Chang" uniform. As they leave [[spoiler:the Mossi bust]] near the end, they pass by said 6'1 Chinese guy. Also named Chang.
22	* BriefAccentImitation: Ryan unconsciously imitates Pupa's accent.
23	* BecomingTheMask: Ryan very quickly starts to believe he's a real cop. [[spoiler: In fact, the ending sequence sees him become a cop for real!]]
24	%% * BromanticComedy
25	* BuddyCopShow, except, y'know, [[SubvertedTrope they're not really cops]].
26	* BullyingADragon: Justin and Ryan have their revenge on the people who hit the latter's car, but were unaware that they are members of the Albanian mob.
27	* CatFight: Justin and Ryan attempt to break up one of these. They fail. Miserably.
28	* DirtyCop: [[spoiler:Detective Brolin is Kasic's partner, and the head of the LAPD's organized crime unit.]]
29	%% * TheDragAlong: Justin, big time.
30	* DragonAscendant: Mossi caps his boss [[spoiler: Brolin]] when Ryan convinces Mossi that said boss would sell him out for a lighter sentence.
31	* DudeNotFunny: [[spoiler:In-universe. This is the policewoman's reaction when Justin tried to explain to her that he and Ryan were joking when they decided to be cops.]]
32	* FauxAffablyEvil: Mossi may seem like a fun, wisecracking crime boss, even mockingly asking his men if the “cops“ bought them a doughnut, but underneath his jovial attitude lies a vicious psychopath who boasts that "he" is the law in Los Angeles. Lampshaded by Seagers when he talks about him to Ryan.
33	* {{Foreshadowing}}: During some payback on Kasic Mossi’s men in the pizza restaurant, 2 of them are seen with a doorway in the restaurant’s basement which Ryan briefly takes notice of before ordering them to join their buddies outside. [[spoiler: It’s later revealed to be a tunnel that leads to Mossi’s compound.]]
34	** Mossi’s men are seen loading black crates to put into his compound while Brolin is discussing Justin and Ryan's police status to Mossi, who tells him to lay low until he finds out what the two "cops" really are. [[spoiler: Said crates are loaded with confiscated weapons from the LAPD, which Brolin himself is head of as the detective of the organized crime unit.]]
35	* ImperialStormtrooperMarksmanshipAcademy: None of the gangsters in the movie can shoot worth a damn. Neither can Ryan or Justin-- though to their credit, they know this, and mostly only shoot to provide covering fire for Seagers to escape.
36	* ImpersonatingAnOfficer: The basic premise of the entire movie. Justin and Ryan acquire realistic LAPD uniforms from Justin's 'Patrolman LA' video game presentation pitch, and Ryan later buys a used police cruiser, decals and a sergeants patch on eBay.
37	* IntoxicationEnsues: Justin, after getting "cranked out" (smoking meth) twitches excessively and suggests they build a porch.
38	* JackBauerInterrogationTechnique: Attempted and failed miserably by Ryan and Justin. Their attempt to waterboard a perp consists of saran-wrapping him to an ironing board and lightly spraying his face with the hose from the kitchen sink.
39	* {{Jerkass}}:
40	** '''KASIC.'''
41	** Also Todd, Justin's arrogant boss, absolutely refuses to take his video game pitch seriously. [[spoiler: In the third act, mobsters attack him in the middle of his game pitch, and, thinking it's part of the pitch, is finally sold on Justin's idea.]]
42	* KarmaHoudini: Ryan and Justin appear to suffer little to no consequences for impersonating police officers for weeks. [[spoiler: In fact, Seagers helps get them off the hook, though it's justified in that they saved his life and also helped take down a very dangerous criminal]]
43	* LoserProtagonist: Two of them.
44	* MegatonPunch: [[spoiler:After going to Kasic's party and getting roped into a fight with someone, Justin finds himself on both sides of one. He gets hit, then he hits back. Surprisingly hard.]]
45	* MirthlessLaughter: Mossi's boys laugh nervously when they inform their boss that "cops" stopped them from acquiring the pizza restaurant Joise works at, punching the bald headed Albanian gangster in the nose before ordering them to find those "cops".
46	* TheMole: [[spoiler:Pupa becomes one after he's kidnapped by Ryan and Justin, then liking them and Justin's video game.]]
47	* MrFanservice: Mossi is not unpleasant to look at.
48	* MsFanservice:
49	** Josie, played by Creator/NinaDobrev.
50	** Annie (Creator/NatashaLeggero), whose apartment is used for some spy work. [[SuspiciouslySpecificDenial She's totally not on ecstasy.]]
51	* MoodWhiplash: The last half of the movie dispenses with most of the comedy and becomes a more serious cop flick.
52	* OhCrap: Ryan is shocked to learn that the detective of the LAPD's organized crime unit who will be seeing the evidence on the Mossi case is Brolin, [[spoiler: the same guy who was talking to Mossi during the stakeout on his compound.]]
53	* RidiculouslyAverageGuy: Again, two of them!
54	* RuthlessForeignGangsters: Mossi Kasic and his crew are Albanian and scary as hell.
55	* SlidingScaleOfBeauty: Josie would be world class, with several people noticing how attractive she is.
56	* StockholmSyndrome / LimaSyndrome: Pupa is a low-level {{Mook}} that Ryan and Justin kidnap to "interrogate". They end up sharing a beer and playing video games with him instead, and he takes enough of a liking to them to tell them everything they need to know. [[spoiler: Pupa even sticks around to become Ryan's informant when the latter joins the police force for real!]]
57	* SuspiciouslySpecificDenial: Annie, upon meeting Justin and Ryan. "I'm totally not on ecstasy!"
58	%% * TalkativeLoon: Pupa
59	* TattooedCrook: Kasic and Pupa. [[spoiler:Subverted in the end when Pupa becomes Ryan's hired informant.]]
60	* TheReasonYouSuckSpeech: Seagers delivers a brief but powerful one in the middle of the third act.
61	* ThoseTwoGuys: The protagonists.
62	* ToplessnessFromTheBack: Josie when she takes off her dress while Justin is trying to confess he's not a real cop. He gets too DistractedByTheSexy to do it.
63	* VillainRespect: Mossi himself is impressed that Pupa beat up a guy at a kickboxing match in his compound, unaware it's Ryan who dressed up as him to find out that the black crates had [[spoiler: confiscated LAPD weapons and that the pizza restaurant had a tunnel that led to his compound.]]
64	* WhatHappenedToTheMouse: Seagers partner Jackson, who disappears after they first scene, and doesn't even get brought for backup in the climax.
65	* WrestlerInAllOfUs / SuplexFinisher:After getting [[GroinAttack a firm grip]] on Justin, Jaquandae performs a textbook back-suplex on him, right through a table.
66	* YouWatchTooMuchX: A neat villainous example, delivered by [[spoiler: Detective Brolin]] to Ryan.
67	-->[[spoiler:'''Brolin:''']] Now, I'll ask again: who are you?
68	-->'''Ryan:''' I'm the guy who's--
69	-->[[spoiler:'''Brolin:''']] "The guy who's gonna take me down." You've been watching too many movies.
70	--> '''Ryan:''' [[VillainHasAPoint Yeah.]]
71	-->''[{{Beat}}]''
72	--> '''Ryan:''' [[BadassBoast But I'm still gonna take you down.]]

Context Film / LetsBeCops