Paul Blart: Mall Cop Review

Safety never takes a holiday

Kevin James’s first foray into film writing, Paul Blart: Mall Cop, is making some serious bank at the box office and yet holds the definition of a mediocre rating on sites like metacritic and imdb. Why you ask? Well one, it had a pretty funny trailer. Two, it appeals to both adults and kids. And three, it’s very, very easily digestible humor. Does this mean it’s a bad flick? Well, kind of… but it definitely has its redeeming features.

In Mall Cop, Kevin James plays the role of Paul Blart, an aspiring police officer and single father. After failing out of the police academy due to his hypoglycemia, Blart resumes his job as a mall security guard, with an enthusiasm that often annoys his colleagues. When a gang takes over the mall with Blart trapped inside, he must use his wits and guts to save the day. Let’s start with that. Right off the bat, it’s a very typical setup for a comedy, and this is not a good thing. And not to spoil anything… but I’m sure we’re all pretty aware how this movie ends. In addition, the plot’s pretty ridiculous, but seems to almost try to take itself seriously; not silly to the point of hilarious either.

However, I think most people who are thinking about seeing this movie already realize this. So let’s move on to the important stuff: the jokes. In short, not all that funny. The first quarter or so is a lot of setup with very little payoff later. Expect a lot of fat jokes, and I do mean a lot. Not that fat jokes aren’t funny, but they really do start getting repetitive as the movie wears on.

You might be wondering what the redeeming features that I spoke of earlier are. Well first off, there are a few scenes in particular that are amazingly hilarious. These moments of sheer brilliance don’t completely counter the predominately lackluster rest of the film, but they sure don’t hurt. Secondly, Kevin James really put his heart into his acting job for this movie and the rest of the cast is pretty good as well. It’s not a huge upside compared to the relative disappointment of the rest of the movie, but again, every little bit helps.

Overall, Mall Cop is basically a lesson in mediocrity. It’s a poorly paced, not very well written, only somewhat funny film occasionally brightened by moments of brilliance. It’s not terrible, but it’s certainly not very good. If you don’t have anything better to see, this isn’t a bad choice, but considering the time of year; I’m guessing you do.