Let's be realistic.

I have absolutely never seen anything like this movie before. You have to see this movie.

a film so unique, intoxicating and bizarre that it not only demands another viewing, but is also forgivable as a satirical comedy where the jokes eventually take the back seat.

The movie really just wants to entertain people.

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.

Lying in bed with a sore throat, I needed some cheering up. Buster Keaton didn't let me down. 'Cops (1922)' is generally typical of the comedian's two-reelers of the early 1920s, though with a lesser emphasis on the ingenious gadgets exhibited in 'One Week (1920)' and 'The High Sign (1921).' The film opens with Keaton apparently looking through prison bars at his sweetheart, until a clarifying shot reveals that it is merely the girl's front gate {Harold Lloyd seized this visual gag for the opening of 'Safety Last! (1923),' but he had a right to it – one scene in Keaton's film, whether unintentionally or not, resembles the manner in which a prop explosion decapitated Lloyd's hand in 1919}. After convincing himself to become a businessman, Keaton's Young Man goes on to show that he has the worst luck in the world. First, he is bamboozled into purchasing another family's furniture (by Steve Murphy, the pickpocket in Chaplin's 'The Circus (1928)'), and then gets caught up in a police parade, where, ever a victim of circumstance, he is wrongly accused of performing an act of terrorism.Keaton loved ending his film's with an overblown chase sequence, whether it be the stampeding cattle in 'Go West (1925)' or the stampeding women in 'Seven Chances (1925).' In 'Cops,' our hero is pursued by hundreds of uniformed policemen, swinging batons and tripping over themselves. Here, Keaton really earns his title as the "Great Stone Face." The chaos and confusion of the pursuit is amusing enough, but even more so is Keaton's extraordinary lack of facial expression – he just runs, staring blankly ahead, like a man who expects his problems to dissipate as soon as he wakes up. Also incredible is the performer's physical dexterity, as he flips back and forth over a tall ladder balanced precariously on either side of a fence. Also watch out for Keaton regular Joe Roberts as the Police Chief, and recurring co-star Virginia Fox in a disappointingly brief role as our hero's love interest. Even an aching throat can't dampen the chuckles in this excellent comedy short. If laughter is, indeed, the best medicine, then I should be better by the morning.

This is a relatively early Keaton short, one of the first where he clearly designed the sight gags.Its a conventional chase setup, with him being chased by hundreds of cops. It starts slowly, and the first half is way below par.But then we move into Keaton territory with some stunts so physically extreme and dangerous its amazing that he survived. We don't yet have any that involve huge machines or buildings, but this is snappy and the pace is perfect once it gets going.I'm not sure whether its perfect because he found the right pace, or because he established it and it seems right.Ted's Evaluation -- 3 of 3: Worth watching.

Cops is perhaps Buster's best short. It's my favorite, at any rate, and that's saying something, because as great as many of his features from the 20s were, his two-reelers were probably his best work. In them he perfected the least sentimental of his personas: an opportunistic, somewhat roguish chap, who doesn't mind getting into a scrape over a girl or a bit of a scam, but who usually manages to get out of it with his wit, athleticism and charm.Keaton invented so much of cinema as we know it today, and rarely gets credit for it, so you really should seek out and watch as much of his pictures from the 1920s as you can.