MRM - Paul Blart: Mall Cop

Directed by: Steven Carr

Written by: Kevin James, Mick Bakay

Starring Cast: Kevin James

Supporting Cast: Jayma Mays (Amy), Keir O'Donnell (Veck Sims), Raini Rodriquez (Maya Blart)

What's it Rated?: PG for some violence, mild crude and suggestive humor, and language. (Plus mild nudity, and multiple mild sexual refrenses.)

Genre: Comedy, Kids, Thriller

Synopsis: Paul Blart is a mild-mannered, dutiful family man who works as a security guard in a New Jersey mall. For years, he has applied to become a cop, but he always fails the physical exam because he is overweight. One day, a gang of organized criminals put the mall under siege and take hostages. Blart becomes trapped inside, and because of his sense of duty, refuses to leave. He thus becomes the police department's eyes on the inside and attempts to stop the criminals on his own.

My Take: It's hard to say a lot about this movie, but I'll see if I can tackle this one and not make it seem as if I"m brushing off my "duties".

The negative elements are obviously first and foremost, so I'll nail those up front. The language is the first thing you notice obviously, but some violence and sexual references rise quickly to make you switch from "hmm, this movie is OK" to "This movie is stupid" and right back again. The fact that these things don't mix with the comedy and slapstick genre very well, turned me off more than made me like the movie more.

There is also one scene in a grill and bar in which the main character gets hopelessly drunk when he drinks a pitcher of margaritas when he thinks it lemon aid. However, this is almost "justified" (if you will) because he loses the respect of several other characters, and gets several tattoos, illustrating that many things that you do when under the affects of alcohol are impossible to reverse. I was a little more comfortable with this scene because it does portray alcoholism in a more negative light than most films--however, it was still alcoholism.

There is a silver lining though! Paul Blart does place high value on respect and good fatherhood and isn't portrayed as a complete ditz when it comes to family matters. This is, quite frankly, welcome relief from the typical war against Dads in Hollywood movies.

As far as humor goes, some is crude, but generally speaking stays away from the Shrek-type crude humor and for the most part stays with "fat jokes" more than stereotypical rude jokes.

Overall I'd say this movie wasn't really recommendable. The story was rather weak, and there were some inappropriate scenes that definitely could have been left out.

Story: 4 out of 10

Humor: 5.5 out of 10

Action/Suspense: 6 out of 10

Overall: 4 out of 10

-Graydon L

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