Taxi Driver Meets Barney
Written: Sep 08 '09 (Updated Sep 08 '09)
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Product Rating:
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| Bang For The Buck |
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Pros: light, good for general audiences, knows its parameters
Cons: lame
The Bottom Line: This is a safe comedy for a general audience. It knows what it's doing, but it's not overly funny.
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| bilavideo's Full Review: Paul Blart: Mall Cop |
Every now and then, Hollywood duplicates itself. Rival studios put out the same movie under different names. Back in '93, Buena Vista put out Tombstone, a western about the shootout at the OK Corral. The following June, Warner Brothers released Wyatt Earp. Five years later, Paramount released Deep Impact, a film about an asteroid disaster. A month later, Buena Vista released Armageddon.
When this happens, comparisons are inevitable. Sometimes, as happened with Tombstone and Wyatt Earp, firstest is bestest (Tombstone doubled the take of Wyatt Earp). Sometimes, as with Deep Impact and Armageddon, fans go with the freshest take. While most critics strongly preferred Deep Impact (both films did extremely well - $300 and $500 million respectively) fans liked Armageddon a little more. Both films were about the same disaster but Armageddon was the funny one.
This will be the year fans speak of the two "mall cop" movies: Sony/Columbia's January release of Paul Blart: Mall Cop and Warner Brothers' April release of Observe and Report. Both films are about the same thing: the comedic misadventures of a guy working security at a suburban shopping mall. Paul Blart is the more successful of the two, taking in $146 million domestically against Observe and Report's more modest $24 million. What accounts for this huge difference at the box office? Is it the principle of "firstest is bestest?" Maybe. Then again, Paul Blart was rated PG while Observe and Report restricted its audience with an R rating. I'd like to think the biggest difference was in how to approach telling this kind of story.
Both movies see mall security as pathetic. If you're going to be a cop, so the argument goes, wouldn't it be better to be a real one, with a badge and a gun? Wouldn't it be better to chase down the real threats to society and not just mallrats on skateboards? In comedy, as in the bedroom, little is laughable. In a sports flick, a professional sports team merits a drama; a team made up of wannabes, as in The Replacements, has got to be a comedy. Not surprisingly, both films feature a mall cop who'd be "all cop" if he could make it through the police academy. In the case of Paul Blart, that reason is physical. The guy is overweight and hypoglycemic. If that sounds a little unkind, consider Paul Blart's counterpart in Observe and Report. Ronnie Barnhardt also couldn't make it through the police academy but for a very different reason: He's a head case.
That single difference sums up a lot of differences in these two mall cop movies. In both films, our hero wanders the corridors of a typical mall, trying to seem consequential. And in both cases, our hero dreams of a serious situation allowing him to show the world what he's capable of. But for Paul Blart, that situation is a light action sequence involving mall invaders. A gang of toxic mallrats seizes the mall, holds hostages and uses a bank branch to wire funds. It's a plot point with various plot holes (Why seize a whole mall to rob a bank? How did these guys expect to get out in one piece?) but it's a very different approach from Observe and Report, where the big threat is not mall rats but a streaker. If Paul Blart's "big threat" is somewhat unbelievable, as its main character becomes a kind of saboteur in a kind of Die Hard theme, the threat is at least a real one in the world of this story. In Observe and Report, Ronnie Barnhardt builds the streaker up in his mind until he's made a dragon out of a horny toad.
That's as good a place as any to distinguish these two films. Produced by Adam Sandler, Paul Blart fits the tonality of Sandler productions, which gear toward an audience wide enough to fit teenagers and their grandmas. Paul Blart is the softer, gentler, prime-time friendly version of this story. The language is easier on the ear. Everybody keeps their clothes on. There are no drug references. This is the comedy you can show anywhere, except perhaps in Amish country. At the film's beginning, Blart (Kevin James) is showing the ropes to his new sidekick, Veck Sims (Keir O'Donnell, a guy who looks a lot like a younger Dennis O'Leary). He shows the new guy how to pull up on his segway to give the appearance of authority. It's an obvious front for a guy who is frustrated, at every turn, by the reality that he has no power. Even senior citizens, riding electric carts at half-speed are inclined to give this guy the finger.
Things change when Blart finds himself falling for readheaded Amy (Jayma Mays), a store clerk who brings out in Blart what Blart seems to have lost when his first wife, an illegal alien, left him as soon as she got residency. But Blart isn't the only one gunning for Amy, nor does his job become any easier when, during an office party, he gets loaded and becomes the world's biggest jerk (Because of his hypoglycemia, he's not supposed to drink). This is the struggle as the story takes us to the next level, which is a kind of light action comedy, where toxic mallrats take over. Because he was playing Guitar Hero at the time, Blart has no idea what's going on. Unnoticed by the attackers, and able to fight from within, Paul Blart finally has his moment.
So, is this a movie you'll want to see? I don't know. To me, the humor was so soft, it didn't engage me. There are parameters to comedy. If a story can be too serious, it can also be too silly. Where Observe and Report errs on the side of dark comedy, Paul Blart is angel's food. If you can watch children's programming, you'll love Paul Blart, which goes out of its way not to offend. This is the mainstream Happy Meal of the two comedies. We're in Adam Sandler country. Writers Kevin James and Nick Bakay, along with director Steve Carr (Next Friday, Dr. Dollitle 2, Daddy Day Care), turn in a light, frothy, production you could watch on an airline or in a schoolhouse. If you like your comedies sunny-side-up, this is the one for you.
On the other hand, if you're looking at the figure of a mall cop and you're thinking of all the comedic possibilities inherent in a story about a guy who doesn't even meet the standards of the trooper who pulls you over for a burned-out taillight, maybe light and frothy are not where you want to go. I saw Observe and Report before I saw Paul Blart, and for my money, Observe and Report was funnier. Each film serves a different audience, but Jody Hill's Observe and Report just slays Paul Blart. It's much darker but, for my money, dark is where a story like this should go. If you've ever been stopped by a rent-a-cop over what turned out to be his desperate need to feel important, you'll agree that light and frothy just don't cut it.
Recommended:
Yes
Movie Mood: Funny Movie
Viewing Method: Other
Film Completeness: Looked complete to me.
Worst Part of this Film: Script
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