Review of Observe and Report (2009) by Marnie G — 28 Aug 2010

"It's like my mom always said: you can polish a turd, but it's still a piece of shit.".

How many of you come up with successful dark comedies? The Coen brothers have done several and then there's 'Bad Santa' The genre is a hard one, I'd say. 'Observe and Report' gives it a shot and I'm sure that some of you who have chosen not to see this, probably have 'Paul Blart: Mall Cop' close in mind. There simply isn't anything funny about rental cops...

Ronnie Barnhardt (Seth Rogen) is a sosiopathic outcast, who works as the head of security at a mall. He dreams of a blonde, manipulative slutty bimbo (Anna Faris), who works as a cosmetician at the same mall. I can't understand how he can see her as the most beautiful woman in the world. Maybe because his life is so utterly fucked up. Living at home with his alcoholic mother, whom he has a very dysfunctional relationship with. His days go by dreaming of the girl and becoming a cop, harassing an Iraqian guy and shooting big guns at the range. One day a flasher begins his reign of terror at the mall. Barnhardt makes it his highest priority to take him down.

'Observe and Report' could've worked but it failed badly. I'll admit that I laughed a couple of times but the film is in the end a big mess. And I mean a huge one. The only really good scene was the one when Barnhardt had his interview for the police academy. That scene saved this film from falling totally flat.

But all the other scenes either lack originality, like a minute long scene that consists of two persons saying "fuck you" to each other in different ways, or are offensive as hell, like the sex scene which could easily be interpreted as a date rape, or the subplot that consists of mental abuse to a coffee shop worker.

I like Seth Rogen as an actor. He really can be funny but being a protégé of Judd Apatow doesn't mean that he'd go from success to success. I've read that Rogen liked the script so much, written by a newcomer filmmaker Jody Hill, that he did all he could do to make the production company give the film a green light. I don't know what this says of him and his judgement but even a guy who has the talent to save scenes by pure improvisation can fail. I guess it was inevitable (like Jack Black with 'Envy', anyone?).