Paul Blart: Mall Cop (2009)

Directed by: Steve Carr | 91 minutes | action, comedy, crime | Actors: Kevin James, Keir O’Donnell, Jayma Mays, Raini Rodriguez, Shirley Knight, Stephen Rannazzisi, Peter Gerety, Bobby Cannavale, Adam Ferrara, Jamal Mixon, Adhir Kalyan, Erick Avari, Gary Valentine, Allen Covert, Mike Vallely, Mike Escamilla, Jason Ellis, Jason Packham, Rick Thorne, Victor T. Lopez, Natascha Hopkins

Paul Blart (Kevin James) doesn’t have it easy. As a security guard in a large shopping center, he is not taken seriously by his colleagues, nor by most visitors. Probably because Blart takes his job and his Segway Personal Transporter a little too seriously. And the fact that he lives with his mother and daughter (left to an illegal immigrant who only wanted to get a residence permit) doesn’t really help the image either. To make matters worse, Blart suffers from hypoglycemia, a rare metabolic disorder in which he becomes unconscious when his blood sugar drops too low. One of the reasons why he can’t pass his state trooper exam, his dream job, despite the fact that he proves to be quite agile on the obstacle course.

But Blart’s life is about to change when the attractive Amy (Jayma Mays) moves into a booth at the mall. She does not immediately reject the somewhat pushy Blart, but instead invites him to a staff party, forcing Blart to engage in social life. Amy’s arrival coincides with intern Veck Sims (Keir O’Donnell), who must be taught the tricks of the suit by Blart. However, Veck turns out to be the mastermind behind a major heist – on the busiest shopping day of the year, he wants to rob the mall with a group of criminals. By chance the heist passes Blart by chance, until he is the only one left free in the mall and must try to stop Veck from the inside and free Amy. So he can finally become the hero he always dreamed of.

The title of the film does not suggest anything spectacular and director Steve Carr, the man behind ‘Dr. Dolittle 2’ (2001) and ‘Daddy Day Care’ (2003) do not immediately guarantee top comedy. But lead actor Kevin James knows how to carry the film well with humor that is not too thick on top. The story is a bit thin and the characters quite one-dimensional, but that is of course not unusual in comedies. It’s interesting to see how Blart is portrayed more and more heroically as the film progresses. With the right wardrobe, the right camera angle and the right lighting, he is turned into a real action hero. The film plays very nicely with this fact, by letting something strange happen with every rough action shot, so that the magic disappears in one fell swoop.

Although there is enough to criticize about the logic of the story and the development of the characters, the humor of the film is very infectious. Of course there are the necessary jokes about obesity, but nowhere in a derogatory way. On the contrary, the film wants to convey a positive message. (In that respect, it wouldn’t have been out of place if the ‘love interest’ had also carried some extra pounds, but you have to start somewhere…) There are enough visual and textual surprises in the film to remain interesting, even if it says the outcome is more or less fixed in advance. All in all, ‘Paul Blart: Mall Cop’ is just a fun comedy. Nothing more, nothing less. And for a Steve Carr movie, that’s a lot!