Running time: 86 minutes
Starring: Seth Rogen, Anna Faris, Ray Liotta, Michael Pena, Collette Wolfe, Dan Bakkedahl
Rating 3 out of 10
Films about mall cops are like buses: none for ages then two come along at once. The difference is you're happy to see a bus when it finally shows up. Following the painfully unfunny Paul Blart: Mall Cop earlier this year comes Observe and Report which, as incredulous as it is, is even more excruciating. Seth Rogen has become synonymous with dumb comedies, many of which, like Pineapple Express and Superbad , were made in collaboration with writer/director/producer Judd Apatow. But it seems when he’s not teamed with Apatow, like on the recent abysmal Zack and Miri Make a Porno and here, the result is less successful. In fact his Observe and Report character, the bi-polar, socially retarded Ronnie Barnhardt, the head of security at the Forest Ridge Mall, is frankly more annoying than amusing.
Incessant swearing is a cheap form of humor, but one the film’s writer and director Jody Hill relies on heavily. A prolonged argument with two people simply exchanging “f*** you”s hardly ranks alongside the dialogue of the comedy greats,. Also, the film’s extreme level of violence, which is more suited to an action film than a lightweight comedy, is rather disturbing. When the bloody shooting of someone in a mall, an event not unfamiliar to Americans, is met with laughter, it’s clear to see why the country has problems.
Barnhardt has a deluded sense of his own importance and abilities. He rules his motley group of underlings with an iron fist. When a serial flasher starts frequenting the mall car park, Barnhardt finds him and his team in the spotlight. The intervention of the police, headed by Detective Harrison (Ray Liotta), undermines Ronnie’s authority and he is determined to capture the flasher before they do. When his subsequent application to become a policeman is denied on psychological grounds, he becomes even more obsessed with proving the police’s decision wrong.
Interwoven with this is the romantic thread involving the buxom blonde Brandi (Anna Faris) who works at a make-up stall and with whom Ronnie is besotted. The third person in the love triangle is the virginal Nell, who plies Ronnie with free coffee daily in the forlorn hope of winning his affections. The other women in his life is his alcoholic mother, played with droll brilliance by Celia Weston who delivers the film’s only genuinely funny performance. Given the constantly inebriated state of his mum, it’s s not hard to understand why Ronnie is so ill-equipped to cope with life.
Save for Weston and the very rare moment of humor, Observe and Report is an aimless collection of random gags. The film’s scattershot approach, used in lieu of a decent plot, could be forgiven if more of the comedy had been on target, but its aim was as wayward as that of the film’s heroic gun-toting mall cop.
Kevin Murphy
Incessant swearing is a cheap form of humor, but one the film’s writer and director Jody Hill relies on heavily. A prolonged argument with two people simply exchanging “f*** you”s hardly ranks alongside the dialogue of the comedy greats,. Also, the film’s extreme level of violence, which is more suited to an action film than a lightweight comedy, is rather disturbing. When the bloody shooting of someone in a mall, an event not unfamiliar to Americans, is met with laughter, it’s clear to see why the country has problems.
Barnhardt has a deluded sense of his own importance and abilities. He rules his motley group of underlings with an iron fist. When a serial flasher starts frequenting the mall car park, Barnhardt finds him and his team in the spotlight. The intervention of the police, headed by Detective Harrison (Ray Liotta), undermines Ronnie’s authority and he is determined to capture the flasher before they do. When his subsequent application to become a policeman is denied on psychological grounds, he becomes even more obsessed with proving the police’s decision wrong.
Interwoven with this is the romantic thread involving the buxom blonde Brandi (Anna Faris) who works at a make-up stall and with whom Ronnie is besotted. The third person in the love triangle is the virginal Nell, who plies Ronnie with free coffee daily in the forlorn hope of winning his affections. The other women in his life is his alcoholic mother, played with droll brilliance by Celia Weston who delivers the film’s only genuinely funny performance. Given the constantly inebriated state of his mum, it’s s not hard to understand why Ronnie is so ill-equipped to cope with life.
Save for Weston and the very rare moment of humor, Observe and Report is an aimless collection of random gags. The film’s scattershot approach, used in lieu of a decent plot, could be forgiven if more of the comedy had been on target, but its aim was as wayward as that of the film’s heroic gun-toting mall cop.
Kevin Murphy
