Movie Review - “Observe and Report”
*** STARS
If you’re planning on seeing “Observe and Report”, hold on to your britches and get ready to be thoroughly shocked and offended. Seth Rogan fans expecting another sweet and sensitive physical comedy will instead be treated to a film with much darker humor. Rogan plays security guard Ronnie Barnhardt whose delusions of grandeur are put to the test when the mall he works at is struck by a flasher. Anyone who has ever shopped in a mall knows that mall cops just aren’t cool and Rogan plays the out of luck loser type with fine tuned timing.
“Observe and Report” has a harsh and bizarre tone that makes you unsure whether you can laugh, although the dysfunctional characters do eventually win you over. This is a movie about damaged, deranged people, who you wouldn’t want to be near if you met them in real life. Somehow Director Jody Hill is able to push his characters to the edge of horribleness while keeping them brutally funny.
I also have to give a lot of credit to Anna Faris who proves that she is not afraid of going to extreme lengths to get laughs. Throughout the movie, she never tries to sweeten her character up like many actresses would have. Right now, she is proving to be one of cinema’s most valuable comic actresses with this and “The House Bunny”. Another inspired performance to be found in “Observe and Report” is from Celia Weston, and she plays Ronnie’s alcoholic mother. This could have been a cruel and clichéd character but Celia makes it a lot more than that.
Ultimately this film works because it is so true to life and at times uncomfortably all too real. Sure some of the humor is violent, perverted, drug related, and just disgusting, but it’s hysterical nonetheless. I appreciated the shock and awe of it all. “Observe and Report” is funny and uncompromising, offering laughs without denial or shame. This might not be a movie for everyone, but it was gut busting funny for me.
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