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SYNOPSIS:
With a heart that won't quit, a stomach that won't stop gurgling and a self-sworn oath to protect his turf, he's Paul Blart: Mall Cop.
Mild-mannered Paul Blart (Kevin James, TV's "The King of Queens") has always had huge dreams of becoming a State Trooper. Until then, he patrols the local mall as a security guard. With his closely cropped moustache, personal transporter and gung-ho attitude, only Blart seems to take his job seriously. All that changes when a team of thugs raids the mall and takes hostages. Untrained, unarmed and a super-size target, Blart has to become a real cop to save the day.
MOVIE
REVIEW
Really, you wonder why any production company would invest to make movies with zero appeal. During its theatrical run in local cinemas, there was no impulse on this reviewer’s end to fork out money from his pocket (even if he was feeling ultra rich) to watch this movie. Even if it was a social obligation or if there are only seats available for this flick, he’d rather go browse around in a female fashion store, or something. But now that he has been tasked to review this DVD, he has no choice but to sit through all 91 minutes of this unappealing picture.
Call it unfunny writing if you want, but the plot is as unappealing as the DVD cover: Paul Blart (who else) is a quiet, responsible and nice family man who works as a security guard in a shopping mall. He has always wanted to be a real policeman, but no thanks to his physique, the force just doesn’t see it happening (frankly, neither do we). In a situation that only Hollywood writers can come up with, the shopping mall is taken siege by a gang of criminals, and in another situation which only the same group of Hollywood writers can come up with, our protagonist stays in the mall to fulfill his role as a responsible crime fighter.
Call it body discrimination if you want, but this male reviewer (that may be another important reason why he doesn’t find this movie mildly funny), just couldn’t chuckle a lot throughout the movie. The comical setups are not very rib tickling, the situations which the fat cop puts himself in are anything but humourous. Running into a glass pane? Not funny. Using a girly plaster? Not very funny too. Being dragged around the shopping mall while being cushioned by a big stomach? Don’t even try. The result is a physical comedy which gets tiresome before its one quarter mark. The only reason you’d continue watching this would be the supporting characters which include a motley crew of criminals and that Segway scooter which this reviewer wishes to own.
Kevin James (if the King of Queens fame) plays the titular mall cop with a lot of conviction, sporting a cropped moustache and personally being involved in many painful situations, but that doesn’t make him a likeable character. Sure, it helps that director Steve Carr (Daddy Day Care, Are We Done Yet?) does not take this project seriously, but when we see the mall being destroyed into bits and pieces for the sake of the movie, we cannot help but wonder whether funds could be better utilized if they were budgeted for another better movie.
SPECIAL FEATURES :
This Code 3 DVD contains quite a bit of bonus features, which also means there is quite a bit of budget to go around. There is a Commentary with Kevin James and Producer Todd Garner the duo talk about how thankful how the founder of Happy Madison, Adam Sandler supported the making of this movie. They go on to talk about how cold it was on the first day of shoot, and how they wanted the boob sweat (go figure) to be more realistic. There are three Deleted Scenes, one involving James’ character taking photographs for an online dating opportunity. And in this meatiest section running at 50 minutes, we have several Featurettes which bring you behind the scenes of the movie, where you’d see outtakes from the movie and hear James’ reflection after making this flick. The disc is rounded up with other Sony Previews like The House Bunny and Open Season 2.
AUDIO/VISUAL:
The disc’s visual transfer is pristine, while there are 5.1 Dolby English, Spanish, Thai and Portuguese audio tracks to choose from.
MOVIE RATING:
DVD
RATING :
Review
by John Li
Posted on 18 July 2009
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