Cop-Out is a distressingly "mod" remake of the 1941 French film Strangers in the House. Taking over the role originally played by
Raimu,
James Mason stars as a retired, scotch-swilling attorney residing in France. Mason disapproves of his daughter's (
Geraldine Chaplin) new boy friend (
Bobby Darin), but rises to the young man's defense in court when the boy is arrested on a suspicious murder charge. The casting of Chaplin and Darin was meant to "reach" the youth market, but both are way too old for their characters.
Cop-Out would have worked better (especially with audiences of the 1990s) without its trendy camerawork and wearisome generation-gap propaganda. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide