Starring: Phillip Cordell, Ravi Patel and Quinnlan Ashe
Directed by: Danny Dones
Rated: NR
Running Time: 96 minutes
Freestyle Digital Media
Our Score: 3 out of 5 Stars
I couldn’t pass up “Clone Cops.” The title and image at the top of the press release alone sold me. I didn’t need to read the synopsis or any of the other information in the press release. I just knew I had to watch something that looked like an incredibly low budget version of “Smoking Causes Coughing” that would worm its way into the brains of select audiences at 3 a.m. on Adult Swim. So, does it live up to the hype that I’m currently pumping it full of? Kind of, but I also think what it does is perfectly fine and fun.
With a backdrop that looks like whatever abandoned buildings were in the director’s neighborhood, “Clone Cops” introduces us to a world run by NefariCorp, a company that operates like a spite baby made by Amazon, Meta, and Pfizer. If you’re running the world, you need your own law enforcement, right? Enter the clone cops, who are all played by comedically self-deprecating and scenery chewing Phillip Cordell. The clones are made in a lab out of continuously recycled pink slime because they’re about as useful at stopping criminals as Stormtroopers are at stopping the Rebel Resistance. They’re deployed en masse, over and over again, to bust some criminals participating in a heist. Sounds like a great excuse to watch slapstick gore, but just when you think you’re about to watch a film on a 21st century version of the Keystone Cops, the movie flips on its head.
The silly bad acting action does unfold like an episode of “Power Rangers,” but the film manages to twist the story consistently while wedging in commentary on the social media age and the cruelty that inhabits it, the cutting corners ineptitude of corporate run public services, the idea of endless content to feed humanity, and how Earth may just now be where poor people inhabit it to provide for the rich on the Moon. However, all of that may be the film’s biggest problem because it really does way too much on top of the inherent comedy. I’m not saying it didn’t tackle these topics in fun ways, but it seems to overinflate the runtime and break up too much of the comedy and moments where we learn more about these absurd characters. It is a fun giggle-filled ride, but it could have been a low budget “The Other Guys” with some more fine tuning.
The film appears to pay homage to sci-fi genre amongst the laughs while developing a low-budget Troma charm (although not as gross out). Sometimes it leans into those low budget charms while other times it just does look and feel like a low budget film. I haven’t really talked about the plot, but that’s because so much relies on the twists which evolve over time. “Clone Cops” is just fun, and honestly, that’s all you can really expect, want and need out of a film that barely passes the hour-and-a-half mark.