Two out of Four stars
Jody Hill has a warped sense of humor. The writer-director first showcased his unique comedy style in the 2006 film “The Foot-Fist Way” with actor Danny McBride. Hill and McBride soon gained a following consisting of some of Hollywood’s comedy heavyweights, including Will Ferrell, and subsequently led to the creation of the HBO series “Eastbound & Down.”
In “Observe and Report,” Hill teams up with another Hollywood heavyweight8212;Seth Rogen. Both Hill and Rogen have their own distinct style of humor, and by all accounts should have knocked this one out of the park. But though the film has some hilarious moments, Hill leads the story down a dark road that Rogen’s range isn’t quite ready for.
The trailer makes “Observe and Report” look almost identical to the Kevin James-led “Paul Blart: Mall Cop” film that was released a few months ago. With the two films coming out so close to each other, the comparisons are inevitable, but what you see in the trailer for “Observe” is all first act stuff. From there, the humor gets darker and more twisted.
Ronnie Barnhardt (Rogen) is the bipolar head of security at a mall where a flasher has been exposing himself to customers. Unable to catch the pervert, the mall manager brings in Detective Harrison (Ray Liotta) to help. The two men predictably clash because Ronnie doesn’t like another cop on his turf and Harrison doesn’t like Ronnie at all.
Liotta has a few standout moments, but he seems to be on autopilot most of the way through. He’s always been good at the tough guy characters8212;which is why those are really the only roles he gets8212;and here he plays the straight man to Rogen’s arrogant, delusional mall cop. But there isn’t much dynamic between the two and Rogen gets all the jokes and the majority of the good lines because he’s a talented comedic actor. He has been ever since “Freaks and Geeks” debuted in the late 1990s, and the past few years have shown that just about everyone wants to be in the Seth Rogen business. But here, Hill wants Rogen to do something that he’s not quite ready for. Rogen has the character of lovable schlub down pat. He can get great laughs out of the awkward, coming-of-age love stories he’s been involved with, but “Observe and Report” is not that type of movie.
There’s a strong dramatic undertone to this film, and Rogen doesn’t have the chops to make the audience completely buy into it. There have been scores of comedians who have crossed over to heavy, dramatic roles, but there’s always been a learning curve involved, which is exactly what Rogen could have used. He needs a few more quiet character roles under his belt before he makes the transition to Ronnie Barnhardt. That’s not to say that he won’t be capable of doing it, because he will. Just not right now.
As the film goes on and Ronnie chases his dreams of becoming a real police officer (if only that psychological exam wouldn’t get in the way) and dating makeup counter goddess Brandi (played by Anna Faris, who gets less funny in every movie), the humor moves away from the slapstick that was expected and into some truly dark territory.
A lot of what’s funny about this film has to do with shock value. There are more than a few occasions when something so unexpected happens that all you can do is laugh. The problem with that, however, is that it will only work once.
Hill described the movie as what “Taxi Driver” might look like as a comedy, but that wasn’t a good idea. All that does is set it up for expectations that are harder to meet. Hill definitely has an original voice, as he’s able to make the audience sympathize with a lunatic like Ronnie (and an egomaniac like Kenny Powers to a lesser degree), but he doesn’t quite have the skills to pull off anything as bold as Martin Scorsese did8212;and Rogen is nowhere near the powerhouse actor that a young Robert De Niro was.
In the end, “Observe and Report” is a solid film with more than a few good laughs, but isn’t something that is going to hold up much beyond a single viewing.
