Video Review: 'Cops and Robbersons' (1994)

Chevy Chase is the stumblebum family man whose house gets commandeered for a police stakeout. Jack Palance is the cop on the case who eats stumblebums for breakfast. By now these two actors can play such parts in their sleep — which is what they seem to be doing here. It's not just the typecasting that killed Cops and Robbersons, it's also the way director Michael Ritchie goes against his stars' strengths, eschewing broadside character collisions for warmer, fuzzier encounters. Here's a movie in which a typical Palance hard-ass ends up as the Robbersons' honorary ''Uncle Jake.'' Dopey? Yes. But not funny. C-