Coffee & Kareem (2020) Review

I like action buddy comedies, as long as they are good. My only criteria is that they are funny, have some exciting action scenes and an entertaining story. This movie failed on almost every mark, in my opinion. I wish Netflix would focus more on quality over quantity, because unfortunately there are film fanatics like myself in the world who will watch every piece of garbage they release.

Coffee & Kareem (2020) is an action comedy starring Ed Helms, Taraji P. Henson and Terrence Little Gardenhigh. A Detroit police officer named Coffee (Helms) is dating a woman named Vanessa (Henson) and things aren’t going well with Coffee and her son Kareem (Gardenhigh). Kareem doesn’t like Coffee, and he tries to set him up to be hurt by some gangsters, but things don’t go according to plan and soon Kareem and Coffee find themselves on the run for their lives.

This movie was only mildly entertaining. The jokes weren’t that funny and I feel like the acting was pretty bad from everyone but Ed Helms and Taraji P. Henson. This role is right in Ed’s wheelhouse, the hopeless romantic loser with just enough heart to overcome his problems. It’s his one trick pony.

I don’t like speaking poorly about kids, so I won’t say that Kareem needs to get a few more acting lessons before he takes on another feature role. I feel like that would be kinda mean.

I was actually surprised to see Taraji P. Henson in this movie. She has far more acting chops and star power than anyone else in this film. What was she doing in this movie?

The setting and vibe was not believable at all. The gangsters didn’t act like gangsters, and the cops didn’t act like cops. It all felt very bland, which actually might have worked if the jokes were funny, but sadly no. This movie tried too hard for the shock jokes and dirty humor, but never actually hit the mark for me.

All in all, don’t bother seeing this movie. It’s not going to make you laugh and it will only mildly entertain you. Netflix really needs to start producing more quality comedy content, and soon please.

• This film was released on April 3, 2020.
• This movie was produced by Pacific Electric Picture Company and distributed by Netflix.
• This movie was filmed in British Columbia, Canada and Detroit, Michigan.
• The Captain's name is Walter Hill, the name of the director of 48 Hrs.which also features a white cop and a black sidekick.