Paul Blart: Mall Cop | Family Comedy | rated PG (V) | starring Kevin James, Jayma Mays, Bobby Cannavale | 1:31 mins
Paul Blart (Kevin James) takes his job as a mall security guard very seriously. Armed with a Segway, a pose that makes it appear like he has a gun (but we all know he doesn’t) and a new recruit under his wing, he sets out to make sure the shoppers have a safe experience during the after-Thanksgiving sales rush. His mission is thwarted in grand style by an acrobatic pack of robbers who take hostages and rob the mall. Left inside, with his kioske crush (Mayma Mays, Glee) and daughter two of the hostages, Paul fights back against the criminals.
In the world of identical plot movie duels (Armageddon vs. Deep Impact, Antz vs. A Bug’s Life, etc) you can add the criminally unseen Observe and Report vs. the inexplicable mass hit Paul Blart: Mall Cop in which the seamingly unexciting life of a mall security guard is mined for laughs. In each movie a police academy drop out lets the meager power of his job go to his head, is considered a loser and is given a chance for redemption from an outside threat, all the while nursing a crush on a cute blonde who works in the mall. Aside from that the two movies really are about as far apart as these identical plot duels have ever been. Observe and Report is a twisted adult ride through psychotic dementia. Paul Blart is a light, cute, inoffensive, family film and as much as I didn’t expect to like it and uncool as it will probably be to say – it’s a fairly good one at that.
The Happy Madison logo is always a forbodding sign for me. It sets the bar for Paul Blart pretty low. I found myself waiting for the bad jokes, potty humor, slapped on romance and generally shoddy production of an Adam Sandler-produced movie that never came with Blart. It’s an achievement if more for what it isn’t then what it is, stepping over the the cheaper, stupider gags another kids movie would revel in. To the contrary it stays surprisingly high-brow with gags like Blart pulling over an old man in a Rascal for driving recklessly through the mall that lean more toward kid’s-movie clever.
Where Observe & Report‘s threat was hilariously low-key, Blart is Die Hard in a mall, with James flopping himself head-long into the fat jokes, slapstick and big action, throwing punches like a portly PG John McClaine. Director Steve Carr (a studio kid’s movie veteran) stages the action, well, like an action movie getting my appreciation for not holding back and proving that you don’t have to mask a fight scene with silliness and slapstick to incorporate it into a family film. It’s a slick, polished movie all around, a big step up from the seeming back-yard shoots we usually get from a Sandler production. Actually it’s pretty darn entertaining in a light-weight sort of way. Little one’s may even be thrilled with the parkour exhibited by this unusually acrobatic group of hijackers who fly up to elevator banks or skateboard through the mall. It’s a nice touch. It also pretty much takes the Segway around the block. As Blart’s side-kick, every potential use for it pretty much gets bleed dry.
The movie is a blatent star vehicle for Kevin James, which is where I think most people are going to have a problem with it. Now “in” with Adam Sandler’s chronies, the sitcom star positions himself as the successor to the fat guy roles that would have gone to John Candy or Chris Farley back in the day. Is he worthy? Maybe, maybe not. But as star vehicles go Paul Blart is an agreeable one showing James as a guy with just the right amount of self-deprication and vulnerability.
Paul Blart: Mall Cop is not exactly a riotously funny or exciting or unpredictable movie, giving the edge to Observe and Report for the year’s best mall cop movie – if you don’t mind your mall cop movie with a side of date rape. But it is still an agreeably entertaining, charming and nicely brisk flick that pleasantly doesn’t go for the cheap gag or underestimate it’s young demographic. You’ve seen a whole lot worse, in fact it may be the best thing Happy Madison has stamped their logo on.