Paul Blart: Mall Cop
Paul Blart: Mall Cop is an idea ripe for a lampoon. I mean who hasn’t run into someone doing security that’s all puffed up on his own deluded self importance. Here Paul Blart is not so much self aggrandising as serious since he has a medical condition that prohibits him from passing any law enforcement physical so he’s doing the next best thing. He’s a single dad who lives with his daughter Maya (Raini Rodriguez) and doting mother (veteran Shirley Knight) so he’s written off as a loser by most people save for Amy (Jayma Mays) a fetching mall boutique proprietor with tweety bird lovability but thanks to Veck (Keir O'Donnell who looks like a poor mans Christian Slater) a new mall recruit he gets an opportunity to shine. At mercifully only 90 minutes it actually delivers a few good laughs making it slightly better than expected but that’s still not saying much. By the title alone this movie lowers expectations for nothing more than a lame cookie cutter comedy. Expectations are not raised much with Kevin James starring as Blart as he may tip the scales at the better part of a tonne but as a leading man is pretty light weight. He does show some impressive athleticism for a guy that size but even sporting a 70’s porno star moustache doesn’t generate a lot of sympathy for this basically unlikeable character.