Review of Observe and Report (2009) by Chads — 09 Apr 2009

Even at his most heroic, during the movie's major action set-piece, the filmmaker undermines the mall cop's heroism with a quick excursion into racially-motivated violence as he strives for a redemptive outcome to his citizen's arrest.

Ronnie Barnhardt(Seth Rogen) is a genuine anti-hero, the rarest of things in a contemporary mainstream comedy, let alone, contemporary mainstream film, period. At times, the mall cop can be downright hateful, especially in a politically incorrect scene with an Arab vendor that will give large portions of the audience pause.

Although "Observe and Report" makes compromises galore, making amends with the skin-care expert he derisively calls Saddamn(Aziz Ansari) isn't one of them, thankfully. Ronnie remains fundamentally Ronnie.

It helps offset some of the film's inevitable banalities. After the major action set-piece climaxes in a heart-stopping act of violence, for a split-second, "Observe and Report", you think, went all the way with a truly subversive coda.

But alas, the film plays it safe, and slaps on a happy ending, which is the unfortunate mandate for all studio films, comedies especially. "Observe and Report" never goes the distance with its "Bad Mall Cop" sensibilities; the film goes depressingly mainstream when it counts.

For instance, the character of Nell(Collette Wolfe), who is obviously pretty in spite of her temporary dismobilization and bad hair, should be plain, the complete opposite of his dream girl Brandi(Anna Faris), appearance-wise, because their convergence is supposed to be the union of two lonely people.

All dolled up and cast-free, Nell now seems ill-fitted for the down-and-out security guard, but that's the Hollywood way: obsessively ramming happy endings down its customers' throats. For a racist with anger management problems, who in one scene, comes close to raping a girl, "Observe and Report" seems awfully forced in its attempts to make Ronnie likable.