As Good As It Gets

It’s an especially fun movie from a director and cast who are clearly having a good time allowing themselves to let loose.

Pretty good movie overall. First half was nothing special but it got better as it went along.

This story has more twists and turns than a second-rate soap opera.

Keaton shorts are often a tale of two halves, as though he came up with two separate ten minute skits, then combined them - and with 'Cops' we have one excellent half followed by one lesser one.Buster does not make a very good businessman. In attempt to prove his value to a girl, he manages to steal money, pay two men for possessions they do not own, before riding a horse and cart into the middle of a police parade and throwing out a lit bomb. All of this happens completely accidentally of course, and up until the bomb incident Buster is looking quite content with his assumed progress. Afterwards an epic chase scene ensues, where he must evade the whole police force.Like all Keaton films this runs at a quick pace, and the first half is very humorous. The second half manages to take one of the most common scenes in silent cinema - the police chase - and blow it up to epic proportions. It is quite possible this was done in parody of the genre, but it is still yet another police chase scene, which, once you've seen numerous already, can become a bit monotonous.

Buster Keaton has certainly caused a lot of mayhem in his films, but getting the entire police force of a huge city against him is a first, even for him. This is exactly what happens in "Cops", s silent black-and-white comedy film from 1922. At this point, the end of Buster Keaton's short film career wasn't really far anymore and the end of the careers of Joe Roberts and Virginia Fox wasn't too far anymore either. Keaton wrote and directed this film together with Edward F. Cline, his longtime collaborator and Cline, as almost always, plays a minor character in here again as well. The huge star, however, is Keaton again. Sadly, the action and comedy in this film was not great enough to keep me interested. The ending was interesting though as you don't see such that frequently in films, especially back in the 1910s and 1920s, but it certainly added a bit of the "sad" factor to Keaton's movies in general. However, I do not recommend "Cops". I cannot really see why this was inducted in the National Film Registry.

When I read about "Cops", I got led to believe that the whole movie was a giant chase scene. It turns out that the chase is mostly confined to the last couple of minutes. But those last couple of minutes are pretty wacky! In this case, Buster Keaton tries to find a job but accidentally steals some money and causes a massive police chase. I can imagine that they probably had some fun filming some of the scenes.I actually got the feeling that this movie may have been a semi-sequel to Keaton's previous movie "The Playhouse", in which he and the woman look like they're running off to get married at the end. This one begins with her telling him to get a job or she won't marry him.Whether or not it was, this is still a pretty funny movie.

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