What do The 40-year-old Virgin, Knocked Up and Superbad all have in common?
They are all slapstick comedies starring Seth Rogen and, for the most part, they are all really funny and entertaining movies. But, as many moviegoers understand, not every application of this formula works to success.
In this particular situation, Rogen’s latest film endeavor, Observe and Report, fails to meet the high expectations of his previous movies. The basic plot follows the life of the head of Mall Security, played by Rogen, as he tries to woo the dumb blonde Brandi, played by Anna Faris.
In the midst of all this, there’s a man running around the mall parking lot flashing people. It goes primarily unprosecuted for some time, until Brandi becomes a victim. From that point, all bets are off as Rogen makes a commitment to take down the pervert and win Brandi’s heart.
Based on that, it doesn’t sound like that bad of a movie. Though, for some reason, it quickly falls into that pit of characteristic expletive-laden humor. Granted, it is a pretty funny movie, but for the large majority of the time, it seems like the humor is garnered from laughing at the characters, rather than with them.
For instance, there are quite a few standoffs between characters in the movie where they simply stand toe to toe and curse each other out for a couple minutes. Hilarious? Definitely. Worthwhile? Certainly not. But, it’s moments like these that are defining the comedy movies these days, so if that’s what the audience wants to see, then give them what they want.
In the end, how does the movie fare as a whole? It’s certainly a film intended only for a young college crowd, but after all, it is a Seth Rogen film, who else but college kids would go see it? Don’t get me wrong, Observe and Report is not a bad movie, it’s just not a great movie either. It is definitely really funny, but getting a laugh is the only point of watching this film. Without a doubt, this is definitely not a movie you can watch over and over again, it would get old quick. Really quick.
Score: 7/10
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