Bruce Willis and Tracy Morgan are partners in crime in 'Cop Out.'

Cops have always been perceived (or at least idealistically) as firm and macho, if not reliable heroes. But just like any other hero, these guys have a soft spot, too. And that soft spot is magnified all over the place in the action-comedy flick, “Cop Out.”

Before you macho men get irked, it’s not really a turn-off. After all, these cops, played by new pair Bruce Willis and Tracy Morgan, are tougher than most but they are human beings with personal problems to solve as well.

Jimmy (Willis) and Paul (Morgan) are NYPD officers who just got suspended for a failed mission. Unfortunately, it coincided with Jimmy’s daughter’s (Michelle Trachtenberg) upcoming ($48,000-worth) wedding which he desperately wants to shoulder, or else his ex-wife’s conceited husband number two (Jason Lee) will take the credit, to his shame.

Desperate times call for desperate measures, indeed: Jimmy decides, albeit reluctantly, to sell his prized possession—a 1952 Andy Pafko baseball card. However, it gets stolen by a memorabilia-maniac bandit (Sean William Scott) and turns it over to a Mexican gangster named Poh Boy (Guillermo Diaz).

This may be a serious plot line to most, but writer-brothers Mark and Robb Cullen made almost each moment a laugh trip, particularly on the first part of the film where Paul “harassed”—not interrogated—a suspected criminal by firing him line after line from popular films such as “Training Day,” “Schindler’s List,” “The Color Purple,” “Scarface” and “Die Hard,” as if he is a walking film quote book with a bonus audio feature (well, he called it “homage,” and his effort actually paid off).

But what is just downright funny are the film's "bromantic" hints.

Less than five minutes into the film, one will see Paul handing out a card to Jimmy, then greets him “Happy Anniversary.”

And since when have guys been vocal about being in love with sunsets and promising each other that they will see it together sometime? Not until Sean and Tracy’s characters whispered such sweet nothings to each other. Definitely not for the gay-o-phobes.

The “30 Rock” star elicits the most laughs in the film with his slapstick and dramatic kind of humor. He can pull off anything from how he “poops” to how paranoid he is of his wife who might be cheating on him.

Likewise, “American Pie”’s Sean William has the comic timing to be funny and annoying at the same time with his character’s habit of imitating what a person says simultaneously as he utters it.

The comic, although sometimes-bordering-to-gross, dialogues also succeeds in making people laugh without having to make a reference to race issues. President Obama would be happy.

Bad news is, the lead pair here has less chemistry with each other than with any other member of the cast: Tracy pairs off better with Seann than with Bruce. It might probably be due to Bruce’s seeming detachment to his character. He doesn’t give much of himself as much as he did on his previous films like “Die Hard,” “Armageddon,” and “The Sixth Sense.”

More bad news for Bruce’s character is, he doesn’t get redemption in the end. What he aimed to achieve, he did not, and so it simply makes the whole pursuit seemingly pointless.

Paul’s character would’ve also added more texture to the storyline if his problem had been anything else than his wife cheating on him, because it rendered him like a crybaby hungry for milk.

There are also debatable details in the movie, such as a gangster kid who competes with Paul for the most number of dirty words he can utter, and a murder that takes place inside a chapel, after which Poh Boy scatters money on the church table, kneels, and prays, “Bless me Father for I have sinned.” These images send the wrong message, especially to younger audiences. One should not compromise values for the sake of comedy.

This is Kevin Smith first directorial output of a script he didn’t write himself, and while funny, it basically just delivers the fun for the sake of it. If that’s what you’re looking for, then that’s what you’ll get.

Warner Bro.’s “Cop Out” in cinemas March 3.