Review of Paul Blart: Mall Cop (2009) by Har F — 24 Sep 2015

Paul Blart: Mall Cop is a comedy written by Steve Carr in 2009 about an everyday single father who is struggling to raise his daughter. This unlikely hero takes extreme measures to show that this mall is focused on the safety of its customers. Though very few workers at this mall are actually worried with their careers, Paul Blart continues to identify himself as a serious security guard. When the mall is taken over by a seemingly harmless colleague of his and a group of his colleague's helpers, Paul Blart quickly jumps into action. The moment he realizes that his once endearing colleague has taken his daughter and potential girlfriend hostage, Blart begins to show that he is the hero that he always believed he could be..

This comedy is intended to give the audience a laugh to remember. Similar to his previous movies, like Pitch Perfect, Steve Carr continuously creates jokes that revolve around Blart's weight and the fact that he needs sugar almost every hour. Apart from the insulting jokes, there is the question about language. Fortunately, parents are able to relax because the language is simply mild. There is only one curse word throughout the entire set; however, the movie does also use God's name in vain. These sets of words are used during one of the few violent scenes. These violent scenes go as far as using stuffed animals to hit, guns in hopes of shooting, and threats to scare the main characters into backing down. In addition to violent scenes, there are only a few scenes involving sexuality. During these suggestive scenes, Paul Blart is seen kissing his new girlfriend after saving her life for only a couple seconds, Blart is also briefly seen making googly eyes at the girl he finds beautiful, and one other scene that is slightly longer includes two girls fighting inside of a Victoria's Secret store. The fight within Victoria Secret does include a brief peek at one of the lady's involved in the fights bra, but nothing more is shown.

Through all of the random scenes in Paul Blart: Mall Cop, Carr manages to convey the idea of never doubting yourself. Every character within this movie sees Blart as the odd man out until the day he saves the mall and gets the girl of his dreams. While viewing this movie myself I had quite a few laughs, but never truly appreciated the movie until I found the value of the message. Usually movies are less dramatic in selling the message to you, but the presentation was quite entertaining in the end. Overall, I would definitely recommend this movie for a family night in with the children, but not as a date night movie. I hope that everyone takes the same amount of laughs away as I did, and just remember to have a completely open mind while viewing this comedic movie.