Why It Was Hell: Director Kevin Smith had such a miserable time filming Cop Out that he wrote an entire chapter of his book about the production, namely his clashes with Bruce Willis. Smith called the experience "soul crushing", and that were it not for the calming presence of co-lead Tracy Morgan, " might have either killed , or someone else". Smith complained that Willis was uncommunicative and irritable throughout shooting, intentionally flubbing scenes, insulting Smith, refusing to co-operate for promotional materials and even threatening Smith physically. On the other hand, Willis was reportedly unimpressed with Smith's lack of technical knowledge about camera lenses and his tendency to smoke weed while on set. Who was right? Who knows? Was It Worth It?: As Tracy Morgan's character himself says in the film, "No, no, uhm mmm, no, no, no, no, no, no, hell no, no, no, I refu-no, no." Cop Out was eviscerated by critics for being a tepid, weirdly generic buddy cop film which suffered from the fact that this was the first time director Kevin Smith had worked from someone else's script as a "gun for hire". It made its budget back, but not a whole lot more.