At the time when Observe & Report came out in theaters, I placed it on the backburner. Having seen nearly all of Seth Rogen’s movies, at the time I felt that this flick was one that I could wait to watch. Months later when it came out on DVD, I finally got my chance. The first thing that popped in my head after the credits rolled was “I should’ve watched this sooner.”
For starters, Observe & Report isn’t your typical laugh a minute comedy. It is probably one of the darker comedies I’ve seen in a while. While a lot of the humor is pretty obvious, it is the subtle laughs that seem to hit the hardest. This is the type of movie that needs to be watched more than once to catch everything. In fact, the style of this film is a bit refreshing. It reminds me of ‘Foot Fist Way’ and ‘Cable Guy’ in that the humor isn’t exactly in your face, but if you pay close enough attention to the details, they’re actually very funny flicks.
Ronnie Barnhardt (Rogen) is head of mall security, although the entire mall, including cosmetics girl Brandi (Anna Faris), his object of desire, view him as a walking joke. In fact, only Ronnie’s inner circle of security guard misfits view him with importance. ( On a side note, the security guard crew is made up of some of the funniest outcasts on screen in a long time). To make matters worse, Ronnie suffers from mental disorders, which cause his view of reality to be even more deluded. The mall patrons soon fall prey to a perverted flasher and when Brandi is the latest to witness him bare it all, Ronnie sees this as his opportunity to step up. Things become further complicated when a real detective (played by Ray Liotta) is brought in to investigate. Naturally ronnie and the detective butt heads, and things just get worse from there.
The entire cast of this film was great. Rogen gets to flex more than his comedic abilities as his role requires him to portray a character that is signifiacntly deeper and darker than his usual fare. Anna Faris is also pretty good, although her role only requires her to be the ditzy blonde persona which she has perfected over the years. Ray Liotta is just as good as always, although like Faris, he too has had time to perfect his hard nosed street tough cop persona as well. Perhaps the scene stealer of the entire cast by far goes to Ronnie’s right hand man, Dennis, played by Michael Pena. Pena is insanely funny in this movie. His delivery of even the simplest comments will have you cracking up. The movie also has some of the funniest cameo appearances I’ve ever seen. Keep an eye out for Danny McBride, who has one of the best scenes in the entire film.
The plot of the film is actually very good and quite unexpected. There are a couple of other storylines that interconnect and reach a resolution at the end. At first this movie looks like another take on Paul Blart: Mall Cop. Having seen both, I can say that other than the fact that they are both about mall cops, the similarities end there. While Blart is slapstick stupid humor, Observe is more edgy, with a storyline and characters that are actually driving towards a climatic conclusion. Observe & Report surprised me in a good way. Right when I was reaching a point where comedies all seemed the same, this movie comes along with enough originality to spice things up. While definitely not the best or even the funniest movie I’ve seen this year, it just seemed to have the right combination of all the right elements to make it one of the most enjoyable flicks I’ve seen in a while.