A huge surprise hit this past January, ‘Paul Blart: Mall Cop’ has now made a star out of Kevin James where he will now, no doubt, be the go-to guy for the chubby but endearing loser. The film is harmless fun for the family even if it’s basically one fat joke spread out to 90 minutes.
After tipping a toe in the big screen waters playing second banana to Will Smith in ‘Hitch’ and Adam Sandler in ‘I Now Pronounce You Chuck and Larry’, Kevin James who seasoned his comedian-to-actor chops in the long-running ‘The King of Queens’ sitcom, uses Sandler’s ‘Happy Madison’ productions to springboard his first starring role which James also co-wrote and produced.
Directed by Steve Carr (‘Daddy Day Care’), I was kind of surprised by how ineffective the film was for me after seeing its shockingly successful box-office run (close to $150 million vs. a 25 million budget). I’m even a big fan of Kevin James in the ‘The King of Queens’ where he shows a lot more comic flair that isn’t completely dependent on throwing his considerable bulk around with reckless abandon, which is clearly the whole reason for the film’s existence.
Deciding to follow more in the footsteps of Chris Farley via a more family-centric path, ‘Paul Blart: Mall Cop’ finds Kevin James taking up the titular role in a New Jersey shopping mall that gets hijacked by skateboard-wielding high-tech thieves and it’s up to Paul Blart to thwart them. A parody of ‘Die Hard’ set in a mall isn’t a necessarily bad idea but the whole movie just seems like an afterthought.
A divorced dad who lives with his mom and his young daughter, Paul fills out his days eating ‘comfort food’ and taking his mall cop job a bit too seriously all the while harboring a crush on a cute blonde girl Amy (Jayma Mays) who works at one of the mall kiosks and looks altogether way too young for him.
Being continually rejected by the state troopers, Paul becomes the man on the inside during the hijack armed with nothing other than a segway and his weight. When both his crush and inexplicably his daughter get taken hostage in the mall, Paul is forced to pull up his size 38 pants and pull a McClane.
Glaringly made for the ten-and-under crowd (I’m hoping) whom I can only guess fueled the box-office grosses, ‘Paul Blart: Mall Cop’ has some very meager ambitions that for my money, the film falls short on. I like Kevin James so I only hope the success of this film doesn’t cement him to films centered completely on his heft but I have a bad feeling a sequel isn’t going to be far behind.
That being said, I can see why kids did and will latch onto the film as Kevin James has an engaging, hangdog quality to him that would be hard to resist as a pup. Dispatching cartoonish villains in a variety of goofy ways, the blowing up of the Rainforest Café for the climax is very telling of what kind of audience James and the filmmakers were targeting.
The film is presented with a serviceable 1.85:1 anamorphic widescreen transfer and 5.1 Dolby Digital track. Special Features include an audio commentary from producer Todd Garner and Kevin James and it’s nice to hear that James was slightly annoyed with the horrible continuity of some of the sequences though James keeps his comic-skills strangely muted.
About 12 minutes of ‘Deleted Scenes’ is provided and close to an hour of ‘Featurettes’ that show various behind-the-scenes footage. A ‘Theatrical Trailer’ rounds things out.
Approached strictly as a cartoon to entertain kids, it’s harmless, brainless fun (for that set anyway) that could be recommended solely on the fact that there’s absolutely nothing in the pic to offend (going so far as to slip in numerous anti-messages i.e. drink too much and make a fool out of yourself!). I just hope it allows Kevin James to pursue a more creatively comic cinematic path.
Paul Blart: Mall Cop is now available at Amazon . It is available for pre-order at AmazonUK for release on Aug. 10th. Visit the DVD database for more information.
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