Fox Home Entertainment presents

Cops: Caught in the Act (1989)

"Bad boys, bad boys
whatcha gonna do,
Whatcha gonna do when they come for you?"- from the show's theme song

Stars: Cops, white trash
Director: various

Manufacturer: DVDL
MPAA Rating: Not Rated for language, drug references
Run Time: 00h:49m:13s
Release Date: 2004-03-23
Genre: television

Style Grade	Substance Grade	Image Transfer Grade	Audio Transfer Grade	Extras Grade
C+	B	B-	C	C

 

DVD Review

If there was a hall of fame for burnouts, rednecks, and morons, there is no doubt that amongst the group of first-time inductees would be the television show Cops. In broadcast for more than a decade, the hit Fox program began life as a bird's-eye view of the day-to-day activities of an average police officer in Any City in America. It has, at least in the past several years, become a riotous half hour of television as, more often than not, the inept criminals provide more laughs than a night's worth of sitcoms.

Now the series comes to DVD in several volumes including Caught in the Act, a fifty-minute look at the capture of criminals, both the educated and the moronic, after they have done an illegal deed. In this volume, we are treated to six installments of criminals making almost the perfect getaway.

The first occurs in New Orleans during the annual Mardi Gras celebration. The act in question focuses on several drunken twentysomethings defacing the front of a popular bar after having been thrown out for disorderly conduct. After a visit from what seems like an army of cops on horseback, the situation is resolved, but not before some truly comical moments featuring the drunken mob.

From there the action shifts to Texas—a state that is featured prominently in the set—where a would-be escapee takes off only to collide with a building after his friend flees on foot into a near by residence. What is most entertaining about this piece is that the friend who flees thinks he can hide a large portion of crack cocaine inside a box of food in the apartment he has just invaded.

Staying in Texas, we encounter a pair of street racers who seem oblivious to the police car placed right behind them at a red light. This one is far from exciting, but you have to admire the sheer idiocy of the racers. Still in Texas, we find a drunk driver who rear-ends two parked (!) cars but tries very hard to get out of the DUI test, including the use of a string of expletives.

In Philadelphia, a man high on PCP continues to slam his car into others parked on the street, and when the police drag him from his vehicle he is not even sure who or where he is. Other stories involve a New York subway bust, a house in Florida full of marijuana plants and paraphernalia, and two people in Kansas City who are quite possibly the dumbest criminals walking the earth.

In many ways Cops exists to show us that someone else is more stupid than we are, and in that it succeeds very well. These collections are a nice way to see the high points from over the course of several seasons and if things go well, with this release one can only hope that full season sets will soon be on the way.

Rating for Style: C+
Rating for Substance: B

 

Image Transfer

	One
Aspect Ratio	1.33:1 - Full Frame
Original Aspect Ratio	yes
Anamorphic	no

Image Transfer Review: Picture quality is generally average with nice colors and but sharpness and detail are each of very low quality. As each of the pieces is generally set during the night there is a heavy amount of grain evident which hampers the overall quality of the picture.

Image Transfer Grade: B-
 

Audio Transfer

	Language	Remote Access
DS 2.0	English	yes

Audio Transfer Review: The Audio is presented in Dolby Surround and it is very much based out of the center speaker. Dialogue sounds fine with very little distortion evident. The surround speakers are nonexistent while the left and right speakers offer only a tad more in terms of output.

Audio Transfer Grade: C 

Disc Extras

Full Motion menu with music
Scene Access with 6 cues and remote access
Subtitles/Captions in English with remote access
1 Documentaries
Packaging: Amaray
Picture Disc
1 Disc
1-Sided disc(s)
Layers: single

Extras Review: The lone extra feature is a piece that lasts sixteen minutes and features a bevy of material too explicit for network television. Fans of cursing and topless girls will no doubt be thrilled.

Extras Grade: C
 

Final Comments

While Cops is always more fun when you are a tad inebriated yourself, this collection can be enjoyed simply for the fact that some people can be very, very stupid, and, as a bonus, these people are not you. So, let's all raise a can of Pabst Blue Ribbon to this release of Cops.

Kevin Clemons 2004-03-22