Cop and a Half
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Theatrical release poster
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| Directed by | Henry Winkler |
| Produced by | Paul Maslansky |
| Written by | Arne Olsen |
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| Music by | Alan Silvestri |
| Cinematography | Bill Butler |
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| Distributed by | Universal Pictures |
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Release date
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Running time
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93 minutes |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Budget | $4 million |
| Box office | $41 million |
Cop and a Half is a 1993 American buddy cop-comedy film directed by Henry Winkler, and stars Burt Reynolds, Norman D. Golden II, and Ray Sharkey in his final role. Reynolds plays a veteran cop who reluctantly takes an eight-year-old child (Golden) as his partner to solve a murder investigation.
Devon Butler (Golden) is an eight-year-old boy who lives in Tampa and dreams of being a cop. He watches police TV shows, knows police procedures and plays cops and robbers with his friend Ray. One day, while snooping around in a warehouse, he witnesses a murder. He goes to the police, who want the information, but he refuses to give it unless they make him a cop. They then team him with veteran cop (and child hater) Lieutenant Nick McKenna (Reynolds), and they team up in a comic series of events to find the killer. They eventually come to a mutual understanding in order to bring the killer to justice.
Macaulay Culkin was approached to play the child. Culkin dropped out, along with Kurt Russell, who was attached to play Det. McKenna, when the film was delayed for script rewrites. The child co-star was rewritten to be female, then back to male once Golden was cast. Shooting took place in Tampa, Florida.
Joey Lawrence's "Nothin' My Love Can't Fix" is used as the end title song.
The film holds a 17% approval rating at the film review aggregator site Rotten Tomatoes, where two reviews out of the twelve polled are positive. Jay Boyar of the Orlando Sentinel wrote, "Just about the only really enjoyable thing about Cop and a Half is Norman D. Golden II, who is genuinely cute and a pretty good little actor besides." Film critic and historian Leonard Maltin called it "abjectly painful" and wrote, "And a hemorrhoid-and-a-half to anyone who sits all the way through it." Critic Gene Siskel also excoriated the film, seeing it as indicative of "artistic bankruptcy" on Burt Reynolds' part, and singled out Norman D. Golden II's performance as "awkward". Siskel later called it the worst movie of 1993. Siskel speculated that NBC thought little of the film when they aired it in its broadcast-network debut, pointing out that they scheduled it opposite the 1997 Super Bowl. However, Roger Ebert gave it 3 stars out of a possible 4, saying, "There isn't much that's original in Cop and a Half, but there's a lot that's entertaining, and there's a winning performance by a young man with a big name, Norman D. Golden II, who plays little Devon Butler, a kid who dreams of someday wearing the shield."
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