Review of Paul Blart: Mall Cop (2009) by Steve A — 09 Aug 2012

Paul Blart: Nobody knows this mall better than I do.

Paul Blart is an overweight, nice guy who has a passion for "his" mall. It would be safe to call him a looser because he is a 40 year old man working as a mall guard. (Oh, i'm sorry, I meant Mall Officer). Anyway this guy meets a girl (our heroin) and the two sort of have a connection, but the girl has a boyfriend, who is of course really mean to Blart. This boyfriend of her's is supposed to be the character we hate, but the movie fails terribly at executing that. Now that I think of it, everything within this story is done pretty poorly. It all "wraps up" really predictably too.

Maya Blart: [reading ad] Okay, next question. "Tell me about yourself.".

Paul Blart: Let's see. I know a lot about sharks.

Mom: Let me stop you right there.

With that being said, the reason I like this movie is because of it's twist near the end of the first act. The movie takes a "Die Hard spin". Robbers take over the mall near closing time and the only person in the building being mistakenly left is Paul Blart. Now it's up to Kevin James and all of the sight gags writers can come up with, with him being on screen, to take out the robbers one by one and save a group of hostages full of aquatences of his. (Sound firmiliar?) All of that is played out in a surprisingly cool way.

Sergeant Howard: Looks like Paul Blart turned into quite the badass.

With all of the bad elements present in the first act, taking place before this makes the second and third act more believable. The cheesy "wrap up" ending also present here works in the same sense as this because you feel as if you have just watched a movie that's got a cheap story line with a cool twist in the middle.

Or, you can also hate this movie desperatly like many others. A guilty pleasure indeed.

Paul Blart: If you remember one thing from today, it's this: the mind is the only weapon that doesn't need a holster.