The long and the short of it is this: if you like RedLetterMedia content like Half in the Bag, Best of the Worst, re:View, or the Mister Plinkett reviews, this will probably be an enjoyable experience for you, albeit, maybe a little more-of-the-same.
Having familiarized myself with a lot of RedLetterMedia's backlog of content going back to their Plinkett shorts and The Grabowskis, it's interesting how the advent of the Plinkett reviews and the Half in the Bag skits have seen their humor evolve. However, I can't help but feel like that this sense of humor and these characters make this film feel more like a really long Half in the Bag skit than a standalone film, which is ultimately my biggest critique of this.
That's not to say the humor is bad, on the contrary, I laughed at a lot of the jokes in this film, especially when I saw a reference to The Grabowskis included in one of the scenes. The cheesy one-liners Space Cop says are also great. My problem lies in that the characters portrayed by Mike, Jay and Rich all feel like characters we've already seen before and feels like more of the same as one of their YouTube videos except with higher production values. Coming into this film after seeing all 5 seasons of The Grabowskis and having watched The Cleaning Lady for the umpteenth time, maybe I was expecting something a little grittier and more of that vein of bizarre humor than this. There are some moments in this film where I felt the joke was included to satisfy a checklist, like Rich Evans yelling "OHHH NO" despite it feeling a bit out of character for Space Cop. I still laughed at that joke but, I couldn't help but feel like characters were being reprised in this film, either for the sake of catering to their YouTube audience who know them for those sorts of jokes on their various review series,or because it's being done somewhat on autopilot- or maybe a little of both.
There are some people who have reviewed Space Cop and have called it disappointing by pointing out technical flaws in the way it was made, but it's obvious this film wasn't made on a very robust budget which is probably why they went for a science fiction schlock comedy film instead of trying to make something more profound.
I just wish Space Cop had an identity of its own but as it is, it's still a fun experience and one that I think many RedLetterMedia fans will enjoy.
