Genre: Comedy
Director: Steve Carr
Cast: Kevin James, Jayma Mays, Keir O'Donnell, Bobby Cannavale, Stephen Rannazzisi, Shirley Knight
RunTime: 1 hr 32 mins
Released By: Columbia TriStar
Rating: PG
Official Website: http://paulblartmallcop.com/

Opening Day: 19 March 2009

Synopsis:

In Columbia Pictures' comedy "Paul Blart: Mall Cop," Kevin James stars as the title character, a single, suburban dad, trying to make ends meet as a security officer at a New Jersey mall. Though no one else takes his job seriously, Paul considers himself on the front lines of safety. When a heist shuts down the megaplex, Jersey's most formidable mall cop will have to become a real cop to save the day.

Movie Review:

It's a little bit difficult not to like Paul Blart the Mall Cop, especially when he's being played by the affable Kevin James, whom local audiences have become acquainted with since his Hitch days, and his marriage to Adam Sandler in I Now Pronounce You Chuck and Larry. In this latest comedy directed by Steve Carr, Kevin James loads up on the self-deprecating fat-jokes, and unfortunately at the risk of being politically incorrect, I must say some of the best moments come from these laugh-a-minute situations.

James' titular character is your stereotypical down and out guy whose medical condition is keeping him away from his dream job of being a cop. So he settles for the next best thing, and that's being a security officer assigned to a shopping mall. I can't recall when the last time a security officer had been pushed to the forefront of a role, but Paul Blart's attitude and dedication to his job deserves nothing less than a salute, even though he could be overzealous at times, and turn out to be the exception rather than the norm, with stereotypical security officer behaviour such as sleeping on the job, and being non-vigilant the hallmark of his colleagues in the control centre.

Think Die Hard meets Home Alone, where a man of the law (well, even if it's in pseudo terms) finds himself at the wrong place and the wrong time, with a group of crooks taking over the mall on Black Friday, probably the busiest shopping day in the US calendar, and our hero has to outwit, outplay and outlast the hoodlums using nothing but his street smarts, walkie talkie and know how of the mall inside out, and do battle with artifacts he's familiar with. I think this could also be the first film I've seen with the Segway Personal Transporter so prominently featured, and Kevin James, publicized to have done all his own stunts, is pretty nifty and nimble on that machine.

It's family friendly in the "Disney" sense that you don't see anyone kick the bucket, or die with their limbs blown off. The villains come across as rather weak and pea-brained to underestimate our cartoony hero's dedication to his job, which of course makes Paul Blart look good when up against the one-dimensional villains whom you don't care about other than to guess how Blart would concoct something ridiculous to settle scores. Granted there are a number of fat jokes, but don't go all apologetic when laughing at them because they're not all done in bad taste or in an insulting manner.

And what more when you have a genuinely good natured hero to root for when his goal is to protect his family, and the love of his life Amy (played by Jayma Mays), a new mall tenant whom he develops a crush on, and now being handed the opportunity to show just what he's made of, not the timid nor drunken joke that he destroyed his first impressions with.

The jokes and action might be juvenile to appeal to a broad spectrum, but you can't deny the charisma Kevin James brought to the role. If anyone can convincingly pull off a bumbling yet lovable security guard character with the heart of gold, then Kevin James is The Man!

Movie Rating:



(Detect, Deter, Observe, Report and Laugh!)

Review by Stefan Shih