The thin line between love and hate isn’t as thin as we once thought… and it’s blue, thanks to middling mall cop movies like Paul Blart: Mall Cop with Kevin James and more recently Observe and Report with Seth Rogen.

The film has generated some mixed responses with one rendition of this movie poster’s subtitle stating: “Observe and report this fat, creepy mall cop, who rapes a chick, isn’t funny and has no redeeming qualities. Oh, and tons of cocks.” Sounds like they’re going for something a little bit different to Pineapple Express and Knocked Up, doesn’t it?

Catch the rest of the review and the trailer after the jump…

Malls have become a credit card rodeo in an undercover park ‘n shop gold mine, where you can find just about anything, whether you’re shopping for “forgive me” jewelry, a new Apple “toy” or a new girlfriend. No wonder it has also become a hot spot for petty crime! Drugs don’t come cheap and if you can’t hold down a part-time job, you’ve got to do a little pocket “shopping” of your own.

Mall operators know the American dream is best compared to the rags-to-riches story of Scarface and that’s why they need an elite team of equally adept criminals to observe and report in the spirit of “it takes one to know one”. Real cops have guns, mall cops have tazers, real cops have lives, mall cops don’t… The rented cop stripper outfits, the aloof look of authority, the Noddy badges, the irritating presence… it’s no wonder Americans have developed a love-hate relationship with these clowns of petty justice.

This same contempt is expressed in the prickly comedy of Observe and Report, with its cross-hair on Ronnie,  a lowly, psychotic mall cop. Writer-director, Jody Hill (The Foot Fist Way) said that his initial inspiration for Observe and Report was to make a comedic version of Taxi Driver (1976), and to this end he succeeds, although (gulp) no one ever said it was going to be pretty!?

Seth Rogen is Ronnie Barnhardt, a wannabe cop, who has hit the glass ceiling of mall security… he’s head cop. His incompetence is perfectly balanced so that he provides just enough security to hold down his job and hit on the object of his affection, a local beautician (Faris) with super-sized lips. However, his quiet suburban life is turned upside down when a serial flasher starts doing some freelance “flashdancing” at the mall.

Newspapers lock-in on the pervert’s reign of full frontal nudity and its not long before the customer safety is brought into question. Detective Harrison (Liotta) is sent to investigate and a struggle for superiority ensues as Barnhardt tries to throw his “Shopping-Center King” (German title) weight around.

Observe and Report has locked onto a tragic hero, and like it or not, tragedy is an important component of comedy. The mall cop’s plight and inferiority complex are loaded with comic material and that’s probably why the unsung hero’s song had to be heard before the fat lady’s. Observe and Report’s writer-director, Jody Hill (not to be confused with Jonah Hill), saw that the world of mall security had potential for the comedy of The Cable Guy and the darkness of Taxi Driver.

This is probably where Observe and Report faltered, resulting in lukewarm indecision somewhere between the paths of movies like Napoleon Dynamite and One Hour Photo. The performances make Observe and Report watchable as Rogen is fully committed to his role and more than up the task, supported by the menacing Ray Liotta, the ditzy Ana Faris and his second-in-command, Michael Peña.

The cast’s strength helps prop the sagging comedy, while simultaneously propelling the heavier, darker themes at play. If date rape, full frontal nudity and police brutality are funny, then we truly are living in sad times. This darkness still pulls at the American psyche in post 9/11, just like post-Vietnam 1970s. Paranoia, fear and uncertainty rear their ugly head in Observe and Report, making it cathartic for some and offensive to others.

Observe and Report powers itself with mean-spirited vulgar language and psychotic comedy, which is dry and rarely funny. The Big Lebowski dropped f-bombs faster than e. e. cummings dropped capital letters and still remained engaging and funny. While Observe and Report is overladen with bad language (even more than Taxi Driver) in an attempt to be cool, edgy and controversial.

So it remains lost in the fat blue line, detested by some and adored by others. The film’s brilliance lies in its darkness, a complete opposite to the feel-good Die Hard spoof of Paul Blart: Mall Cop. However, this darkness threatens to tear the film apart at its seams with its sinister perspective, explosive comedy and lack of redeeming characters.

If you enjoyed The Cable Guy, you’ll have a good idea of just how vindictive Observe and Report’s comedy can get… except Carrey was able to create sympathy for his character, while Rogen generates as much sympathy as a rampant postal worker with a machine gun.

Observe and Report skipped a cinema release in South Africa, partly because of its similarities and timing with Paul Blart: Mall Cop and took a straight-to-DVD route to appease Rogen fans. While the film does achieve a blend of Paul Blart: Mall Cop and Taxi Driver, it fails to command the comedic or dramatic aspects of either genre, resulting in a middling production with a very narrow target audience.

You may appreciate what Jody Hill had in mind, but you won’t enjoy it – at least not as much as Paul Blart’s light-hearted ’90s-style action comedy. All in all, it’s a risky choice for movie night, a good excuse to just make out and an ugly movie to sit through… unless of course you actually like wearing a straitjacket.

The bottom line: Butt-ugly.

Release date: 14 September, 2009

Watch Official Observe and Report Trailer

Now available to rent.
Get more Movie Reviews at spling.co.za