Netflix has released a new red-band trailer for Coffee & Kareem. This is the latest original comedy offering from the streaming service and it comes from director Michael Dowse (Stuber, Goon), with The Office alum Ed Helms in the lead role alongside up-and-comer Terrence Little Gardenhigh in what looks to be a buddy-cop throwback. The company is billing this as “an action-comedy about forging unexpected bonds, one four-letter insult at a time.” This trailer certainly speaks to that, as it’s loaded with action, laughs and quite a bit of cursing.
The trailer kicks off by previewing the chaos to come, before flashing back to how the mess at this movie’s center got started in the first place. Ed Helms character is trying desperately to form a meaningful bond with his girlfriend’s son, and it’s not exactly going well, to say the very least of it. Unwittingly, they get entangled in some violent drama involving a drug gang, which sends them running for their lives. It is lewd, packed with spectacle and seems to blend the 80s vibe with more recent R-rated studio comedies.
Aside from the trailer, Netflix has also released a series of posters for the movie, which channel some 80s classics. Ed Helms and Terrence Little Gardenhigh take on Die Hard, 48 Hours and Beverly Hills Cop. The posters, taken on their own, are quite fun, though they may provide some undue high expectations by nature of comparing Coffee & Kareem to these particular movies, which have undoubtedly stood the test of time. Still, points for creativity in the marketing for this one, especially considering how relatively rare it is to see a good poster these days for a new release.
Coffee & Kareem centers on police officer James Coffee (Ed Helms), who is enjoying his new relationship with Vanessa Manning (Taraji P. Henson). However, her 12-year-old son Kareem (Terrence Little Gardenhigh) is currently plotting their break-up. Attempting to scare away his mom’s boyfriend for good, Kareem attempts to hire a gang of criminals to take him out but accidentally exposes a secret network of illegal activity, which puts him and his family in their sights. To protect his mom, Kareem and Coffee team up for a dangerous chase across Detroit. Shane Mack penned the screenplay and it serves as his first feature.
The cast also includes Betty Gilpin (The Hunt, Glow), RonReaco Lee (Running Out of Time, Sister, Sister}), Andrew Bachelor (The Babysitter, Rim of the World) and David Alan Grier (Jumanji, The Carmichael Show). Michael Dowse most recently directed last year’s Stuber which, unfortunately, wound up becoming quite the box office bomb and one of the notable casualties of the Disney/Fox merger. Dowse also directed the cult hockey comedy Goon and the Daniel Radcliffe romantic comedy What If. Coffee & Kareem is set to arrive on the Netflix streaming service on April 3. Be sure to check out the new trailer for yourself.
