Observe and Report Review—Travis Bickle: Mall Cop

When watching Observe and Report, there come a strong handful of moments, more than can be counted on one hand, where you’re simply forced to stop and think “what the f**k sort of movie am I watching and did that really just happen?” Trailers would have you believe that it’s little more than a crass romp along the lines of Paul Blart: Mall Cop, albeit with a higher expectancy of swearing, sex, and drugs, which one can almost refer to as the Seth Rogen Trifecta. But what you’ll get is something far odder and darker, more dramedy than straight comedy, the likes of which have not been seen since the immortal Scorcese/De Niro classic Taxi Driver.

Seth Rogen completely owns this movie in the role of Ronnie Barnhardt, a devoted chief of mall security with serious delusions of grandeur and prescription anti-psychotics to match. There’s a whack job flasher terrorizing the parking lot of his mall, and he’ll be damned if some two bit pervert thinks they can get away with showing their naughty bits on his turf. Ronnie’s got more issues than the back catalog of National Geographic: alcoholic mom, obsession with guns, romantic befuddlement, and just a pinch of racism. Yet through the sheer force of Rogen’s commitment to the character and abandoning of his usual sarcastic detachment, you always kinda find yourself rooting for the weird bastard. Among those joining Ronnie on his road to glory or oblivion are Anna Faris as a skanky makeup salesgirl and object of Ronnie’s affections, Ray Liotta as a cynical detective with no time for Ronnie’s unhinged enthusiasm, and Crash’s Michael Pena as Ronnie’s right hand man. Faris is far from the likeable goofy sweetheart role she embraced so well in The House Bunny and the Scary Movie franchise, careening between bitchy and just plain sad as a substance abusing party girl who Ronnie is unable to find fault with. The true scene stealer in the mix is Pena’s lispy, jheri curled lieutenant who mines every single line and gesture for maximum levels of kooky menace, and he leaves you wanting more.

Writer/directory Jody Hill takes Ronnie’s story through love won and lost, dreams realized and shattered, and a whole bunch of tazings and nightstickings. The movie is never afraid to make you uncomfortable, confuse you, or shock you (a climactic moment actually made me shout “oh my god!” in the theater) but it will also make you chuckle, smile, and maybe even ponder your path in life. Observe and report is obviously not for everyone, the script would have been well served with a few more laugh out loud moments, and its worthiness of a full price ticket is debatable, but brave Seth Rogen fans and anyone looking for something truly out of the ordinary will not be disappointed.