Dave’s 3-Word Review:
Die Hard: Mall

Kevin James, sometimes you’re just a comedic genius. Let’s forget Grown Ups for a second and focus on your other stuff, because that’s where it’s all at. From King of Queens to Hitch, to (of course) Paul Blart: Mall Cop. I haven’t seen this movie too many times – in fact, it’s been years, but I do remember enjoying it for what it was – just a fun comedy that was never meant to be taken seriously. Nowadays, it seems even more ridiculous, but is that a good or bad ridiculous is the question. I think for the most part, Paul Blart is a memorable-enough character to have people enjoy the film.

Paul Blart: Mall Cops stars Kevin James as the title character – Paul Blart. If you’re looking for a guy with huge aspirations, look no further. He may have a little weight on him, but he dreams of one day becoming a police officer and takes his job as mall security guard very seriously…a little too seriously. Well, when a group of criminals take the mall hostage in order to rob every store in the building, lone security guard Blart decides to save the day while the police wait outside, where it’s safe.

Obviously this movie is going to have some in-your-face nods towards action movies like Die Hard and even comedy classics like Home Alone. Paul Blart himself is actually really memorable for some reason – one of Kevin James’ most memorable performances ever if you ask me. It’s not the best movie, and it’s really silly, but that works very well for it. The best feature of this film, in my opinion, has to do with the range of comedy that’s actually used.

There is a lot of physical humor, absolutely, but there’s a lot of other things like fat jokes and awkward tension that really work well together as well. What that does is remove things like repetition and creates something that feels a little more fresh and in tune with what it was going for. I can’t say I laughed at every joke, but I definitely appreciated what it was going for and not falling prone to the same things most comedies nowadays fall victim to – repetition. You know how you can make a baby laugh by falling down a thousand times? Well, movies do the same thing hoping for the same reaction instead of coming up with other jokes – and from what I could tell, this movie was trying to do new things. Yes, the fat jokes were repetitious I guess, but there was a lot of other things going on at the same time, too. I can’t ignore that.

The Good:

I like Paul Blart’s character. He’s got a silly name for an equally silly personality – but because it’s Kevin James, you also love his character all the same. You know it’s all for show, and there’s no way you’re taking it seriously, but you like the movie for what it is – just clean silly fun.

The Bad:

It’s really not the best movie ever, and you can easily forget about it other than the title. I can remember the name “Paul Blart” forever, but the plot of the movie escaped me since I first saw it – which I know isn’t a good sign. Its laugh are also a little dry and sometimes try a little hard and come up short. They aren’t bad jokes…just don’t always work.