Cops (1922)

Very well executed

The film makes a home in your brain and the only cure is to see it again.

The plot isn't so bad, but the pace of storytelling is too slow which makes people bored. Certain moments are so obvious and unnecessary for the main plot. I would've fast-forwarded those moments if it was an online streaming. The ending looks like implying a sequel, not sure if this movie will get one

Actress is magnificent and exudes a hypnotic screen presence in this affecting drama.

While this doesn't feature too many of the mind-blowing and death-defying stunts that Buster Keaton was known for - don't get me wrong, there are a couple, one involving a small bomb that Buster uses to light a cigarette before discarding in front of some cops, and there's a bit with a ladder that he gets stuck on between two sides of cops after him - it's an excellent example of making comedy out of a chase. A lot of people will say physical comedy would be nothing without the chase sequence, and it's in that in mind that Cops is essential viewing.It's not a chase through the whole film, and the majority of the cops of the title aren't there until halfway through; this is actually about Buster trying to impress a girl by becoming a 'good businessman', and how he does that is use a (ahem) wallet he happened to lift, sort of accidentally, from some town mayor, and uses the money to help out a family moving their stuff over town. He (sort of) helps pack up a cart and has to go with the horse across town. Not necessarily easy, one sees, when the horse is slow as hell. Maybe some goat gland therapy (?!) will do the trick, and maybe too well as case turns out.The reason to see this isn't for the story and Keaton and co-director Kline know that, so it's really jam-packed with energy: seeing Buster run, even at the sped-up film speed, is exhilarating, especially when seeing how it's choreographed with the hundreds (I'd say that's a fair estimation) of cops chasing after Buster once he happens upon a city-wide cop parade. There's always time for a gag where Buster hides in a trunk (or gets caught in one), and how he manages to slip out and keep moving may be ridiculous, but there's always some logic to it, whether it's more cartoonish at times than others.I think the key thing with Cops is that we're fully on Buster's side, though the Cops of the title make for splendid foils and characters for Buster to play off of; when he is being chased by one cop, he tries to hide behind another cop directing traffic, and the cop hits the other instead of Buster. Classic move, and yet while we're often told to respect the police and be nice and yada yada, Keaton knows that with him in the lead there's no way we don't want to see him f*** with them at least a little. It's a joy to behold how this man acts and directs this, leading up to an ending that might almost be bittersweet if it wasn't all so perfectly silly.

Some people think if you see a funny looking fat guy on a movie screen and he says "9-11," you've got the start of a rip-roaring joke, or at least a great sight gag. Obviously, Michael Moore did not originate the cinematic recipe of bombs + comedian = wonderful fun. Amid his milieu of constant anarchist urban bombings, and against the backdrop of his colleague Harold Lloyd being permanently maimed by a humorous-looking special effects movie explosive a few months earlier, Buster Keaton took advantage of his high-rolling fame to exercise a lot of bad taste for a short that only runs 18 minutes. The main character of COPS is a delusional sociopath, and the only thing he does right during his 18 minutes of fame is to turn himself in to the authorities in the closing frame. I suppose it is possible to look at a piece of film only for its technical merit, but since Keaton has 30 surviving features and shorts, I see no reason requiring one to overrate COPS while ignoring its unsatisfying story and its anti-social elements. Charlie Chaplin's Tramp may have resembled COPS "young man" in many respects, but he was full of heart--not of the devil!

We just don't have as much of this light, albeit subversive humor anymore. So in order to catch a new generation up, show 'em this short. It's packed with about as much running, bumbling cops as possible.Keaton plays a man trying to become a business man to, you guessed it, win the affections of the beautiful young woman. Unfortunately, a series of misunderstandings and mishaps frames him as a bomb-yielding terrorist, and a parade (literally) of cops eager to hunt him down.The humor is massive... if you'll excuse the pun. This short makes a delightful little companion piece to Seven Chances, only replacing the tide of pursuing brides-to-be with the just as eager and possibly more dangerous avalanche of an entire city's police force (of which Keaton manages to suitably tie up and lock down, of course).It's known as one of his strongest shorts, and I must put my vote in the mix (even though I think The playhouse is his strongest short of all).--PolarisDiB

This seems to be Buster Keaton's most popular short film. I prefer his films with more cinematically based comedy, such as in "The Playhouse", "The Frozen North" and "Sherlock, Jr.", but "Cops" is a very entertaining little film. It features a large comedic chase--chases, especially involving policemen, being one of the most regularly reoccurring devices in Keaton's oeuvre, especially in his two-reelers. Cops chased Keaton in "Convict 13", "Neighbors", "Hard Luck", "The Goat" and--in an escalated chase very similar to that in "Cops"--"Daydreams". My favorite Keaton chase, by the way, is the chase of the brides in "Seven Chances".The comedic chase has a long cinema tradition, perhaps dating back to James Williamson's "Stop Thief!" (1901) or "Chinese Laundry Scene" (1895), the latter of which was based on a vaudeville act. Then, there were the Pathé comedies and those of Mack Sennett's Keystone, which were greatly derived from them. Keaton came from vaudeville and worked under one of the premiere early comedians, Roscoe "Fatty" Arbuckle, to begin his on screen career, so he was fully immersed in this tradition.In "Cops", there are some good visual jokes that rely on film technique, such as following a close shot of Keaton behind bars with a reverse long shot that clarifies the opening scene. Keaton's mechanical inventiveness is demonstrated during the horse carriage sequence. And, there's plenty of physical comedy during the great chase finale. Keaton's sense of matured, restrained comedy is also important here, which is perhaps best characterized by his retained stoic expression throughout any chaotic misadventure. "Cops" is rather representative of Keaton's refined sense of what's funny and of his advanced understanding of film-making.