Mall cops, the pinnacle of humor
Paul Blart has ambition and drive to become one of New Jersey’s boys in blue. He is trained and ready for the gig. The only problem? He’s hypoglycemic (he faints when his body gets low on sugar). So, instead of becoming a cop, he settles for a disciplined job as New Jersey’s finest mall cop. Sporting a personal transporter, he makes sure that ‘his’ mall is safe and sound, especially from grumpy old men driving too fast in their scooter-chairs. When his mall is taken hostage by some robbers, he finds himself in the perfect opportunity to make a difference and shine through all his mall cop abilities.
When this movie was released during the holiday season, I really wanted to see it. Not because of my great desire to give Happy Madison Production yet another chance to redeem itself for making previous crappy films, but because my daughter thought the trailers were hilarious (she is six years-old). With that said, we were unable to break away from the holiday ritual to go to the theaters (which is unfortunate because that should be a holiday tradition for all families), but thankfully we were able to catch it on Blu-ray. So how did the film do? Let me start.
Kevin James needs to be in more leading roles. The guy is lovable and he plays the perfect lovable loser. You feel for the guy, as you find out he’s a single parent and he wants to do more than just be a mall cop. You also find out that just because he wants more doesn’t mean that he treats his current job like it’s dirt. James’ Blart is disciplined and sticks to his guns (or the lack there of) the entire film. He knows he probably can’t do much better than he has, but maybe he can become better at what he does. Does that make sense? Basically, he’s trying to get the most out of his mall cop gig that he can. Because of this attitude from his character, he comes off as someone who might take his simple job (as most of the other characters see it) too seriously. Later in the film, we find that because of this seriousness, it helps the mall out of an impossible situation. Now, the side sub-plot to this story is a love interest named Amy, played by Jayma Mays, who is incredibly nice to Blart and somehow falls in love with him. There’s not too much to the sub-plot as it is pretty straight-forward.
So, what do I think of this film? I have two ways of viewing this. The first is the critical way.
The movie is grossly predictable. You’re clearly aware of what’s going to go down, though I have to admit I didn’t see the bad guy developing until it was too late. That was a complete surprise (won’t ruin it). You understand how it’s all going to be resolved once the problem in the film starts. You also understand how the love interest is going to bloom. You pretty much can guess the movie without the movie even starting. It doesn’t take a genius to see a repeating formula; this has been done before. I think that James’ physical comedy is golden and not ‘Chris Farley’ over-the-top, which is a plus. At times it gets a bit annoying, as one scene shows him trying to sneak into the bank were the hostages are and using the line ropes to maneuver. That is a bit much. There are times where you get this obnoxious comedy, but it’s not as often as one would think.
Now, with all that said, the moviegoer in me couldn’t help but enjoy this film. I know a lot of critics probably didn’t take to it, but there’s nothing wrong with enjoying a fun comedy. This is exactly what the film advertises; it’s a fun comedy. Too often people go into films expecting epics. I know that when critics go into films they probably don’t have as much fun as they should. For me, I was able to sit down with my daughter and watch a ridiculous comedy about a mall cop. James wasn’t offensive, he didn’t use devices or gimmicks for his comedy, he simply was a wacky, clean comic who actually could entertain an entire family. Because of that, I have to give the movie props. Much like the film Just Friends (which was full of innocent comedy, but good comedy nonetheless — critics didn’t love it at all), there comes a point in the film viewing process where you just need to relax and let the stupid comedy roll. Paul Blart: Mall Cop is a stupid comedy, but it’s tastefully done well so that a broader audience can enjoy it. My six year-old laughed at places I laughed, which means that comedy was incredibly balanced and developed for a larger audience. It’s tough to make comedy for everyone, but this movie seemed to master it. In the end, as critical as I want to be with the film, it’s fun. Sure you’ll need to say that someone holding an entire mall hostage is pretty damn dumb and that guys jumping off ledges on bikes and skateboards is probably impossible, but as long as you can laugh about things in the film, you’ll enjoy it.
Blart is feeling the Blu
On Blu-ray this film looks gorgeous. Sure you’re not getting anything special with the videography, it’s mostly shot in a mall, but what you do get looks sharp in 1080p. So the redness of the old man’s scooter shines through on your HD set, so much that you’ll think you pulled the old fart over yourself. As for the audio, while completely unnecessary (outside of the guitar hero scene), it still comes in at a beautiful 5.1 TrueHD delivery. Excellent stuff.
As for the features, here’s what you’re looking at:
-Deleted Scenes
-Fun on the Set
-Stunts
-Commentary with Kevin James
-The Mall
-CineChat
-Digital Copy
-Much More
All-in-all, the segments, outside of the commentary, aren’t particularly long or deep, but overall the features are good. I think you’ll get some more humor out of the features then you will insight (outside of the commentary), which isn’t a bad thing.