Kevin James uses his hefty charm to cruise through Mall Cop. It’s a decent piece of family entertainment, but don’t expect to want to go back for a second helping.
Paul Blart (Kevin James) is a security guard at the local mall. He wants to be a New Jersey police officer but his hypoglycemia keeps getting in the way. He’s lonely and lives with his daughter Maya (Raini Rodriguez) and mom (Shirley Knight).
While he’s on duty, training new guy Veck Sims (Keir O’Donnell), he spies Amy (Jayma Mays). She’s a new girl at a hair extension selling kiosk. At the end of the day he gives her a ride to her car on his Segway and love appears to be blossoming. However he attends an evening out with the mall employees, he’s usually not invited, because Amy says that she’ll see him there.
Paul never drinks, but happens to down some lemonade that turns out to be an alcoholic concoction. He then becomes drunk and makes a complete ass out of himself. The next day is the Thanksgiving holiday and he spends it gloomily recalling his terrible behavior. He tries to make up with Amy on Black Friday, the busiest shopping day of the year, but she just wants to avoid him.
Towards the end of business at the mall some armed thugs break in and take it over. A group of employees, including Amy, are trapped in the bank in the mall by the thugs. An oblivious Paul becomes “the man on the inside” when he avoids capture and has to defend his mall from the invaders.
Paul Blart really isn’t much to write home about, but it turned out to be a big box office winner and grossed over 100 million. I’d imagine that we’ll be seeing another adventure of the rotund Blart sometime in the future. It seemed to be the perfect storm at the box office for him.
The movie is a PG rated romp that had a funny trailer and seemed to bring a large family audience along with it. Let’s get this out of the way first – I laughed, my kids laughed, and even the old lady laughed. Now, after ruminating on the film afterwards I begin to realize that the movie wasn’t really that creative or original, but I did laugh. I guess in these hard economic times we can appreciate a good laugh every now and again.
It has a lot to do with Kevin James’ charm and he holds the film in that category very well. The cute romance with Jayma Mays was touching, but you’d imagine that this attraction only occurs in films like this one. The thugs get around the mall on skateboards and bikes and that struck me a bit odd, not that James’ Segway action wasn’t weird too, and the villains struck me as a bit 80s for some reason.
Mall Cop might entertain and feel like a meal, but you’ll be hungry and hour later. It’s not the greatest movie ever, but I had a tendency to like James so I’m happy that he has a hit on his hands.
Paul Blart: Mall Cop is presented in a 1080p high definition transfer (1.85:1). Special features include a commentary with James and producer Todd Garner. The special features are presented in high definition. There are around 50 minutes of featurettes covering the making of the film.
Next are 12 minutes of deleted scenes. The disc also is BD-Live compatible (if you’re player is) and offers more special features online. Disc two is a digital copy for your PC or portable device.
Paul Blart: Mall Cop is a funny film if it strikes you right. It keeps it family-friendly and scored at the box office going in the opposite direction of the Apatow comedies. Kevin James seems like a nice enough guy and I’m glad that he has a hit on his hand; I just wish it would’ve been a better movie on second thought.
Paul Blart: Mall Cop [Blu-ray] is now available at Amazon . Visit the DVD database for more information.
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