Most buddy cop comedies have an established formula: one good, capable officer teams up with a goofball with a penchant for mucking up the investigation. Streaming giant Netflix owns the buddy cop scene — just last month, it released the action comedy Spenser Confidential, starring Mark Wahlberg and Winston Duke as two polar opposite partners in crime (fighting). The platform's newest buddy cop flick puts a unique spin on the formula, partnering a bumbling police officer with a child.
Coffee & Kareem (get it?) follows the shenanigans that ensue after well-meaning but clumsy Officer James Coffee (Ed Helms) finds himself on the bad side of his new girlfriend's son, Kareem (newcomer Terrence Little Gardenhigh). Young Kareem isn't feeling the new masculine energy, so he hatches a plot to get Coffee out of his mom Vanessa's (Taraji P. Henson) life for good — by hiring a group of gangsters to rough up the police officer.
AdvertisementADVERTISEMENT
Unbeknownst to the 12-year-old, his hired goons are members of Detroit's most dangerous gang. He inadvertently exposes the inner-workings of their extensive criminal network, putting himself and his mother in danger. To survive, Kareem begrudgingly teams up with Coffee to outrun the gangsters.
The Netflix original may feature a kid as a lead character, but Coffee & Kareem is no kids' film. The tween has quit the mouth on him, shooting off every bad word in the book (and he gets it from his mama). But beyond the obscenities, Kareem is just a kid, and Coffee has to step in to help protect the family that he's grown to love.
Coffee & Kareem his Netflix on April 3. Check out the action-packed trailer below— with headphones.