Review of Observe and Report (2009) by Justin V — 09 Jan 2012

This was a tough viewing for me as my warped sensibilities has dissipated over the years. about 7 years ago I would've loved this film but now it's just a dark comedy that's too dark to be funny.

The first half of the film is decent and there are some laughs, but at a certain point jody hill's vision and dark sense of humor was lost on me. seth rogen's character, ronnie barnhardt, is a little too crude and violent to be funny and way too obsessive to be sympathetic. over the course of the film ronnie became too creepy and simply was a mohawk shy of becoming travis bickle - mall cop. oddly, he was the highlight because the rest of the acting is fairly poor.

Films like "something wild" and "after hours" came to mind while I watched "observe". they both certainly had better direction (jonathan demme directed "wild" while martin scorcese helmed "hours") - I don't think anyone would disagree with that. both films are better at capturing what I believe to be the essence of a dark comedy - they offer incredibly unusual situations that normal people desperately have to get out of whereas hill's vehicle is quite the opposite. it's like sticking a young boy in the jungle - chances are good that he won't make it out alive, but the jungle as a whole won't suffer due to his presence. on the other hand, put a hungry lion in the middle of a theme park and the result is at least a few dead bodies. you simply cannot put an abnormal individual in a normal setting - more times than not it simply doesn't work.

That being said this is a film that will find its way to cult status thanks to rogen's overall likability, the film's subtle crudeness (if that's possible), a general fondness for this type of humor and the surprisingly violent turn towards its conclusion...