Synopsis
A Detroit cop reluctantly teams with his girlfriend's 11-year-old son to clear his name and take down the city's most ruthless criminal.
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Cast
- Ed HelmsCoffee
- Taraji P. HensonVanessa Manning
- Terrence Little GardenhighKareem
- Betty GilpinDetective Watts
- RonReaco LeeOrlando Johnson
- David Alan GrierCaptain Hill
- Andrew BachelorRodney
- William 'Big Sleeps' StewartDee
- Serge HoudeJerome
- Eduard WitzkeSeedy Manager
Recommendations
- 70
IGN
Coffee & Kareem keeps it simple, short, and to the (ultra) violent point as a raunchy cop comedy with clever jokes, zany action, and fun chemistry between leads Ed Helms and young Terrence Little Gardenhigh. It's a small cast but everyone in it is pretty funny, and the director easily knows how to craft a compelling mismatched partner scenario. - 58
IndieWire
While the film is understandably concerned with its titular characters — Ed Helms as straight-edge Detroit cop James Coffee, young star Terrence Little Gardenhigh as his plucky pre-teen foil Kareem — its real standouts are supporting talents like Gilpin and Taraji P. Henson, who end up holding together a film that perhaps should have focused on them instead (cutesy title to come). - 42
The A.V. Club
Bad plotting would be relegated to the realm of incidental if Coffee & Kareem were funnier—isn’t that always the way? Unfortunately, the movie spends a lot of time handing Helms underlined jokes, which he proceeds to underline again with his why-did-I-just-say-that delivery. - 40
The Guardian
It’s a strange movie that can seem mildly interested in tackling bigger issues before swiftly backing down. - 40
Variety
Shane Mack’s screenplay is not without laughs, but it is certainly lacking in prudence. - 38
RogerEbert.com
Coffee & Kareem is stock R-rated buddy-cop comedy shenanigans by way of cuteness, and it ain't "Stuber." - 30
The Hollywood Reporter
Making a film that feels two days long is not the same thing as making 48 Hrs. - 20
The New York Times
The buddy cop movie genre is by all means worth interrogating as conversations around institutional racism and police brutality continue. But this film’s jabs are dull and sophomoric.
