If you saw the trailer for Seth Rogen’s new mall cop movie and thought you were seeing double, you certainly were not the only one. In fact, “Paul Blart: Mall Cop” opened up in theaters less than three months ago and is still playing in some second-run venues. Yet, you could not be any further from the truth with this correlation: While “Blart” was a mild, family-friendly flick, “Observe and Report” is a delusional, dark comedy saturated with senseless slapstick humor and violence but exceptionally few laughs.
Contrary to what the Motion Picture Association of America — the organization responsible for censoring movie trailers — would have you think, this film is not the typical raunchy, easily digestible affair with a few crotch jokes and a humorous mall cop who thinks he can save the world by keeping the mall safe. In actuality, it is tastelessly racist, sexist and narcissistic film with immense shock value and undersized entertainment value.
Ronnie Barnhardt (Rogen, “Zack and Miri Make a Porno”) is a bipolar mall security guard who makes it his mission to catch an anonymous flasher responsible for exposing himself to shoppers and mall employees, including his dream girl, Brandi (Anna Faris, “The House Bunny”). His plan is jeopardized, however, when the police become involved and Detective Harrison (Ray Liotta, “Crossing Over”) tries to steal Barnhardt’s thunder. Consequently, Barnhardt decides he will do whatever it takes to apprehend the flasher and earn the respect of his peers.
With only one independent film credit to his name, director/writer Jody Hill (“The Foot First Way”) is essentially a newcomer to the industry and his lack of experience shows. The film’s screenplay is underdeveloped and has no real structure to it. In reality, it plays like a mismatched montage of only moderately funny “Saturday Night Live” clips.
Hill also does not seem to fully understand the basic concept behind a dark comedy. The purpose of this sub-genre is to make light of a serious subject and, in the process, incite discomfort, serious thought and ultimately amusement in the audience. Hill uses Barnhardt’s bipolar disorder as the launching pad for the film’s humor and creates plenty of awkward moments, yet the movie is far from thought-provoking and rarely amuses.
The film’s greatest pitfall, though, is Hill’s sadistic brand of comedy. While most adult comedies these days make use of sexual innuendos and witty sarcasm to get the job done, Hill relies mostly on physical slapstick. However, Hill’s idea of slapstick is The Three Stooges meets the uber-violent mind of Quentin Tarantino. Whether it is Barnhardt mercilessly attacking a group of crackheads, mall cops bashing kids over the head with skateboards or a mob of police officers beating Barnhardt with nightsticks, Hill obviously loves meaningless bloodshed. The only problem is none of this is funny, just kind of disturbing.
At the same time, you do not really care that all these people are getting their asses kicked because the cast is full of unlikeable characters. That is not to say the cast members do a poor job of portraying their characters; it is just difficult to enjoy an actor’s performance when you cannot relate to the character.
Since his big break in “The 40-Year-Old Virgin” four years ago, Rogen has been on the fast lane to A-list stardom, taking on his third leading role in this film. Although this movie is quite a few steps below his previous films, Rogen still plays the repulsive Barnhardt to the tee, forcing audiences to cringe at his every word and action. His role actually strongly resembles that of Jim Carrey’s in “The Cable Guy” in that he takes on a dark role that audiences will most likely not react well to because the film itself is terrible.
Faris is painfully whiny and annoying as the bitchy blonde bimbo working at the cosmetics counter, but then again that is what her character calls for her to do, so it is hard to knock her performance. Liotta also has a decent supporting performance, but the lack of a likeable hero in the film tones down the force behind his supposedly villainous character.
Although “Paul Blart” was a sleeper hit that unexpectedly brought in over a $100 million at the box office, do not expect “Observe and Report” to match that feat. Once word of mouth gets out and people begin to realize this movie is not the raunchy comedy the morally-misguided MPAA made it out to be, audiences will quickly understand why it is best not to observe this senseless, unappealing mall cop movie.
1 star out of 5.
