Read the Movie Summary by Michael The Moviegoer, and find the plot of Observe and Report.
OBSERVE AND REPORT = ***1/2
“Offend And Rejoice”
To be truly offensive you must be mean-spirited with malicious intent. Many recent comedies coming out of Hollywood are being called “crude” and “offensive”. But if the intent is so obviously to get laughs, why is anyone really offended? If you’re so overly sensitive to material like this, then stay at home.
Jody Hill’s strange and remarkable “Observe And Report” is the latest comedy to attempt pushing the envelope further and it succeeds in a most unexpected way. It’s actually not that easy to tell when the film is going for comedy, or if it’s trying to be a serious dramatic character study of a mentally ill man. This results in a number of awkward moments that, for me, are some of the movie’s most memorable.
Seth Rogen plays a shopping mall security guard as 4D (delusional, deranged, desperate and dangerous). If you throw the “Paul Blart” movie into a blender with “Taxi Driver” you would come up with “Observe And Report”. I’m still not sure if Rogen’s similarity to Travis Bickle is intentional or coincidental, or if his voice-over narration is parody or imitation. There is no “are you talking to me” scene, but clearly Rogen is a mall cop on the edge of a meltdown.
The supporting cast are all great. Michael Pena shows he has a comic side. Anna Faris is the love interest (the Cybill Shepherd role). Collette Wolfe is the girl who needs to be saved from her job (the Jodie Foster role). And Ray Liotta is the most normal person in the movie [!].
With a cast of mostly recognizable faces, the best performance actually comes from new face Collette Wolfe. She adds a brave dramatic texture to the film, the kind that comedies usually avoid. Her performance announces the arrival of a new great actress. Maybe the next Gwyneth Paltrow?
If you are offended by the ‘F’ word, don’t see this movie. If you would rather not see a fat naked man’s penis flopping around during a long chase through a mall, then don’t see this movie. But for the open-minded and not-easily offended, “Observe And Report” is searingly funny and enormously entertaining from start to finish. An absolute surprise.
If you were unfortunate enough to endure the “Paul Blart” movie earlier this year, I can promise you a much different experience with “Observe And Report”. Trying to compare these two movies would be like comparing “The Little Mermaid” with “Splash”.
DVD Watch: For an undeniably demented double-feature experience, team-up “Observe And Report” with “Taxi Driver”.
Michael The Moviegoer
