‘Paul Blart: Mall Cop’ is a Series of Poorly Executed Skits
-----‘Mall Cop’ surprised the box office due to a funny and light trailer in the midst of the dull movie month of January. Boasting character actor Kevin James as its lead, many were ready to see more of the up and coming comedian. Unfortunately, neither he nor the script were worthy of 80 minutes of my life.
-----‘Mall Cop’ is the story of loser Paul Blart. Living with his mother and daughter, Blart hopes to join the police force someday. Until then, he’ll have to settle for being a security officer at the local mall. When the mall is attacked by a team of terrorists, per se, Blart takes it upon himself to save those who have been taken hostage.  |
-----Kevin James stars as Paul Blart. Unfortunately, he has neither the ability nor the script to save this film. After a funny turn behind Will Smith in ‘Hitch,’ and a mediocre role behind Adam Sandler in ‘I Now Pronounce You Chuck and Larry,’ James seemed ready to take the lead. And in his defense, he may have been able to with a better script. Instead, we get lame skit after lame skit, with about 19 of every 20 jokes falling flat. He is awkward, hard to root for, utterly un-relatable, and often more pathetic and sad than inspiring and humorous. While this may be the intent of the film in the beginning, no transformation takes place as the movie tries desperately to maintain a charm that is lost within the first five minutes.  |
-----The movie is never sure if it wants to have some unbelievable action, or just stick to realism for laughs. So it tries both, and the result is an uneven and stupid movie. Many scenes are engineered so specifically for a certain laugh, that they’ll go out of their way with a five minute long, very boring segment trying to sell the scene. What’s worse is that half the time they don’t even get the laugh they worked so hard for. The movie is predictable, James charm wears out fast, and it looks pretty terrible to. Poor sets, poor lighting, it seems as if they just threw this together in about a week. Many of the potentially funny scenes are even squandered due to terrible execution.  |
-----Everyone should stay away from this movie despite its promising trailer. Neither original nor passable entertainment, it is awkward, conventional, cheap, and most of all, tiresome. Some scenes are so worthless you’ll wander how this movie was ever produced. I felt continuously sorry and sickened for and of our protagonist. The movie is so repetitious and poorly executed that you can see right through every actors exaggerated performance as if you were watching a bad high school play. Bottom line, no matter what you do, make sure you never ever see ‘Paul Blart: Mall Cop.’
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