"Don't ever fuck with Benny the Cop."
"We just want to change the statistics a bit."
— Jacob
Kopps is a Swedish comedy film from 2003 by Josef Fares.
Crime is nonexistent in the Swedish hicksville Högboträsk. The supreme authority decides therefore to close the local police station. Thereupon the police officers decide to enhance the criminal statistics on their own to prove that their little station is needed.
Compare Bad Eggs and the later Hot Fuzz.
This film contains examples of:
- Bittersweet Ending: The cops' efforts to prevent their station from being shut down is all for naught, but Jessica tears up the report detailing their criminal activities since nobody was actually hurt in the process and Jacob gets the idea to repurpose their station as a police-themed pizzeria, which turns out to be very popular since the only fast food option in the town up until that point has been a wurst stand that they themselves managed to blow up when trying to inflate their crime statistics.
- Blind Date: Jacob tries to find his true love that way. It doesn't work very well though: his first date stands him up based on a few vague questions before he even gets a chance to order them dinner, and he confuses Jessica for his second date, who arrives when they're in the process of hitting it off.
- Brake Angrily: After Jessica told the police officers that the station will be closed, Jacob, who dives around with Lasse, suddenly slams on the brakes, gets out of the car and kicks against a trash can out of frustration. Later, Benny finds the damaged trash can and skid marks from the full braking together with Agneta and starts investigating, thinking it's a "crime scene".
- Bullet Catch: In his daydream, Benny catches several bullets with his hands and forms a grenade out of them, which he then tosses over his shoulder, spitting out the pin while it explodes behind him.
- Bullet Time: When the Gangsters shoot at Benny in his daydream at the beginning of the movie. It's also a funny reference to The Matrix.
- Chained Heat: Jacob and Benny are chained together with handcuffs while they flee from a SWAT-Team during the climax.
- Dirty Cop: Zig-zagged. While they are actually honest people, they only begin to commit staged crimes order to save their police station.
- Food as Bribe: Jacob and Lasse bribe Göran with a 75cl bottle of Vodka to make him steal a package of sausages at the local supermarket.
- Freudian Threat: Agneta to Göran, to make him tell her and Benny what Jacob and Lasse did with him.Göran: No, I will say nothing.
Agneta: Shall we pierce you through the ball sack, Göran? - Gratuitous English: Benny likes to talk English to himself many times, like for example when he and Jacob are chased by a SWAT-Team."I am the driver! Okay! You're fucking with me, you're fucking with Benny the cop! I'm going for the left! Don't ever fuck with Benny the cop! Motherfucking driver! Don't fuck with me 'cause when you're fucking with me you're fucking with Benny the cop!"
- Guns Akimbo: Spoofed and combined with Gun Twirling. The police officers stage a scene of a shooting in the forest to raise the crime statistics as a way to justify the existence of the station in a small village in Sweden. When they have to explain to Jessica from police headquarters what happened during the shooting, we cut to a Imagine Spot of Benny, throwing two guns into the tree trunks and using two other guns to shoot at the guns that shoot at at group of ~10 gangsters. Jessica, of course, has problems believing it.Jacob: Well, it didn't exactly happen like that, but almost...
- Hairstyle Malfunction: Benny is revealed to have a toupee during the car chase towards the ending.
- Imagine Spot: Benny's daydreams.
- Insistent Terminology: The police cars are called radio cars.
- Juggling Loaded Guns: Benny keeps doing this in his daydreams and fantasies, like in this awesome scene.
- Left the Background Music On: In the beginning we see the patrol cars driving around in the boring city of Högboträsk while toneless music is played in the background. In the next cut we can hear that the music also is played in one of the patrol cars.Benny: Damn it, what is this shitty music?
- Nothing Exciting Ever Happens Here: The reason why the police station stall be closed. And the officers are about to change that.Jacob: They're bloody right. We're totally unnecessary! Fuckall happens here! Check out all the crime everywhere else! Why can't they share it so we could get one little thief here? I feel so worthless.
- One-Man Army: Benny dreams several times that he is one.
- Outrun the Fireball: After the police officers set fire to their favorite wurst stand they remember that several gas cans are stored there. They begin to run away in Slow Motion, Benny leaps himself on the ground while the others keep running, the others hide behind the petrol car and Benny leaps himself over the hood joining them and they wait for the bang, covering their ears. First, nothing happens, but a few seconds later the stand explodes with a huge fireball.
- Overly Long Gag: When Lasse tries to persuade the owner of the supermarket to file a report for theft:Lasse: Listen, Kent. The law says you have to make a report – otherwise we can report you for an unfiled report. Because you didn't report the report you're bound to report – your report can be reported because you didn't report it. And then your report can be reported by us... You understand?
Kent: No... But I'll make a report, I'll do it. - Phallic Weapon: In one of his daydreams, Benny throws his gun in the air, opens his pants, catches the gun in the open fly, then buckles his belt over the gun. He then guns down the criminals using pelvic thrusts.
- Potty Emergency: Benny, while fleeing from a SWAT-team through a forest and being tied to Jacob.
- Take Me Instead: Benny pretends to exchange himself for a child in order to prevent the by him faked hostage-taking from escalating, after the arrival of a SWAT-team from the capital.
- Shout-Out: After the cops have set up their pizzeria at the very end, Benny has one last Imagine Spot where he's imagining that their delivery car is a hovercar very similar in function to the one Back to the Future, with the last shot being identical to the ending of the first movie.
- Textile Work Is Feminine: Lampshaded by Mike and Ramzi when they see Benny knitting headbands for his colleagues.Mike: Shit, you fag, you're knitting!
Benny: What do you mean?
Mike: My mother knits!
[later]
Ramzi: My wife knits in home, are you wife? - What the Hell, Hero?: Benny gets constantly called out by the other police officers for exaggerating things; for example when he tells Jessica a made-up story how the officers were involved in a shootout in the forest with ~10 gangsters and Benny managed to take them out in a One-Man Army-way. She, of course, doesn't believe it.Jacob: What are you doing? You think that you're a fucking super cop?!? You told her so much bullshit!
Benny: Bullshit? I just tried to make it look real!
Jacob: You call this real?! - You're Not My Type: At the very beginning, Jacob's blind date tells him this after only two minutes maximum.
