Movie Review: Observe and Report

I told myself that I wasn't even going to post a review for this movie. After spending an hour and a half watching it, I figured I'd already wasted enough of my life on it, why waste more? But then I decided if I could save just one person from the painful experience of having to sit through it then it would be worth it.

Seth Rogan--with his Rolf the Dog laugh and schlubby, idiot persona--has grown on me and I usually enjoy his movies which is why I checked this movie out from the library. He plays a security guard at a mall where he crushes on Anna Faris. This came out around the same time as Paul Blart:Mall Cop, which I found funny. This movie is not. There is nothing likeable about Seth's character. He is rude, delusional and quite possibly psychotic. He dreams of being a cop so he can wield a gun and kill people. When the real police get in the way of his solving the case of a mall flasher, he goes after them with his flashlight as a weapon and, after beating several officers, ends up sitting in jail as a bloodied punching bag. He's in love with Anna Faris' character who is a mean, stuck up, drug abusing shrew who throws up on him and treats him like garbage. Seth, meanwhile, is condescending and dismissive to the only nice person in the whole mall, a girl who gives him free coffee and obviously likes him (which would only happen in movie land).

The movie is twisted but not in a fun, dark comedy kind of way. You can't root for Seth's character because the thought of him actually becoming a cop is pretty scary. Instead, you find yourself thinking over and over again, "Somebody actually wrote this? Somebody thought it was good enough to greenlight? And somebody paid money to put this movie together?" That producer should be made to watch this movie on an endless stream for 24 hours. Maybe then he'll learn his lesson. (*)