Guillermo Diaz

Directed by Kevin Smith, ''Cop Out'' features two longtime NYPD partners on the trail of a stolen mint-condition baseball card who find themselves up against a merciless gangster. But before they can recover the prized '52 Pafko, they must first rescue a Mexican beauty who holds the key to millions of dollars in off-shore bank accounts and has already witnessed one high-profile murder because of them. Veteran detective Jimmy Monroe (Bruce Willis) needs to cash in on his perfect Pafko in order to pay for his daughter's upcoming wedding. Paul Hodges (Tracy Morgan) is Jimmy's ''partner-against-crime,'' whose preoccupation with his wife's alleged infidelity makes it hard for him to keep his eye on the ball, or his mind on the crime. Already in trouble and with nothing left to lose, Jimmy and Paul will have to break all the rules.

Thurgood (Dave Chappelle), Scarface (Guillermo Diaz), Brian (Jim Breur) and Kenny (Harland Williams) are childhood friends who discover marijuana. They grow up together and live in an apartment in New York. During a smoke, they send Kenny to get food. Kenny sees a horse, and starts feeding it treats. The horse dies (it's apparently diabetic), and Kenny goes to jail. His bail is set at $1,000,000. The guys get a lift home by a hot Mary Jane Potman (Rachel True), and Thurgood falls in love. Thurgood is given some medicinal marijuana by a scientist, and the guys decide to sell more of it to raise bail money. Meanwhile, Thurgood and Mary Jane go on a date, and Thurgood promises not to smoke. He fails. The weed sales go through the roof, and many customers partake (John Stewart, Snoop Dog, Willie Nelson, Stephen Baldwin, Jeneane Garofalo, Bob Saget and others). Scarface and Brian leave their jobs to spend more time selling. Thurgood tries to stay righteous as Brian and Scarface start spending their profits. When Mary Jane breaks up with Thurgood, he promises to stop smoking. Meanwhile, Samson, a rival drug dealer, discovers the guys and trashes their apartment. He demands a meeting with the guys and tells them to pay him half their profits. The Guy on the Couch (Steven Wright) suggests they rob the lab for weed, but get caught. Thurgood offers to set up Samson. The cops allow them to get high before the deal, and the cops get high and forget to make the bust. The guys defeat Samson's hench-women, and Brian summons the spirit of Jerry Garcia (David Bluestein) to defeat Samson. The cops honor the deal to release Kenny, and Thurgood reunites with Mary Jane, giving up pot for good. The end.

Two old men - a white former radical, and a black retired janitor - strike up an unusual and funny friendship on a park bench in New York, where they deal with family, drug dealers, and the pitfalls of age. Old Nat Moyer is a talker, a philosopher, and a troublemaker with a fanciful imagination. His companion is Midge Carter, who is half-blind, but still the super of an apartment house. When he is threatened with retirement, Nat battles on his behalf. Nat also takes on his daughter, a drug dealer, and a mugger in this appealing version of a really 'odd couple'. —Derek Picken <dpicken@email.msn.com>

Richard Clark has just left the well-known Wellington Academy to teach at Marion Barry High School. Now, he will try to inspire the D-average students into making good grades and try to woo a fellow teacher.