AMB Reviews

Paul Blart: Mall Cop: 5/10 Stars

Release Date: January 16, 2009

Content Advisory: Rated PG for some violence, mild crude and suggestive humor, and language. Several minor swear words. There is a lot of fighting, yet it is all very comical and not at all graphic. Several people are held hostage and there is talk of killing. Paul Blart roughly yet comically beats up several robbers.

Review:

I had never actually wanted to see this film. From the commercials, it looked stupid and not at all funny. That's probably why my review is several months late. Turns out, I was wrong on several areas of my prediction...

In Short:

Paul Blart tells the story of a mall cop, who takes his job incredibly seriously, even though nothing dangerous ever happens at the store. But... what happens when something horrible does happen and robbers break into the mall, taking hostages? It's now up to Paul Blart to save the day. Overall, I found the movie hugely entertaining, and it was so much funnier than I actually thought it would be. Sure, the film was mindless and really had no point... but it did offer a good serving of laughs.

In Full:

Paul Blart works as a security guard at a large mall. Unfortunately, none of the guards have ever received decent training, as nothing threatening ever happens at the mall. Still, Blart takes his job completely seriously, always on the look out for danger. But, when several robbers break into the mall, take hostages, and work on robbing the mall, it's up to just Paul Blart to stop them and save the hostages (one of whom he's madly in love with). The storyline works as a family-friendly laugh-fest, with nonstop slapstick humor and lots of falls and ramming into things. It's not very original, as hilarious as it was, and really just felt mindless and pretty pointless.

Acting-wise... I don't really know of a better pick of Paul Blart than Kevin James, who accomplished the ridiculous role respectably. His facial expressions and quirky sayings made the film all the more ludicrous and all together hilarious. The supporting cast contains a bundle of virtually unknown actors, including Keir O'Donnell and Jayma Mays. Though none of them (besides James) were big-time stars, they still accomplished the job decently.

The visuals were average. This paragraph will probably end up shorter than normal, as this wasn't any high-tech movie with explosions abound. The couple of explosions in this movie, however, were rather lame and low-budget. Other than that, the movie mainly consists of simple fist fights, chases, and Paul Blart running into things.

One problem I found with the movie was its unoriginality. Yes, I found myself laughing throughout this film, but it felt like I had seen most of the jokes before. Especially when it came to the slapstick humor... it was definitely entertaining to watch, but it still felt like I had watched it somewhere before. The whole point of the film almost confused me. It didn't seem to have a reason to exist rather than to show off a trunk of falls, over the top fist fights, and Kevin James stumbling around like a madman drunk.

In the end... those going to "Paul Blart" looking for a laugh are going to get one. But that's about it. It doesn't offer much of anything else other than unoriginal, ridiculous humor. Now, in some cases... that's absolutely okay. Some times, people are just in the mood to sit down a view a film and laugh. Other times, they're not. If you're in one of those moods right now... go out and rent this film. I guarantee it will brighten your day. If not, I don't recommend it. It's great for the whole family and will hopefully set you in a good mood, but it doesn't do much more than that.