Ronnie la Gaffe

I can easily understand why many people were turned off by this film, Its easily one of the darkest comedies i've ever seen. There is some brutal violence, use of heroin and even essentially a date rape. But perhaps the darkest element of the story is Ronnie (Seth Rogen). The character is so twisted but fear not people this movie IS funny and sometimes extremely. If you have seen Jody Hill's other works, The Foot Fist Way and Eastbound and Down, and think they're funny then I can almost assure this humor will be right up your alley. But for those who are not fans of dark comedy you may hate it, it all depends on your taste. While it may lack originality in its plot it also has a side of Seth Rogen we haven't seen before, a more deep, layered character, that shows he may have the ability to do more dramatic work. I gave the film a 7 out of 10 because of Seth Rogen's performance with a few noteworthy comedic shines from Anna Faris but most of all for the intelligent and hilarious dark humor the film contains. On the con side however the plot was very similar to Paul Blart.

For some reason, this movie seems to be forgotten to Seth's other movies, and I can't understand why (or maybe I just have a thing for dark humor). At the same time, I understand it's not the type of movie everyone will like. Doesn't change my rating, though.

How Jody Hill's second feature film, Observe and Report, got made at all is something of an insane miracle let alone by a major studio by Warner brothers. Perhaps it was all thanks to Seth Rogen, who recently acted with Hill's main guy Danny McBride in Pineapple Express, who got it green-lit. Because, frankly, this is such a ballsy and weird "comedy" that rests in a nether-region of Paul Blart: Mall Cop, One Hour Photo, and any given Seth Rogen vehicle comedy. It's in simplest terms about a mall cop (or "head of security") who is bi-polar, thinking he's on track to become an actual police officer, trying to track down a flasher who keeps exposing his privates to any women in sight, and quickly goes even MORE bug-f*** crazy when he forgets to take his pills. It's one of the oddest birds in cinema of the year.

And I can't say I exactly "enjoyed" myself, at least in the same way I did with previous Seth Rogen vehicles. This isn't Knocked Up or Zack and Miri Make a Porno where Rogen was this likable guy that the supposed schleps in the audience could identify with him in situations. Ronnie Bernhardt is the kind of guy who if he wasn't a screw-loose might almost be a kind of enthusiastic bad-ass. But as he is he is pushy, off-putting, obscene, at one point an arguable date raper, and is obsessed with using guns over his mace and tazer. He has a drunk mom, one of those almost conventional female things going on where he's "macking" on the ditsy cosmetics girl (Anna Faris) while the happy but tortured-for-her-broken-ankle girl working behind the bakery (Collette Wolf) that gets really bizarre, and a final thirty minutes that... I'll just leave it as it is here.

Suffice to say it's actually brave for Rogen to take on this character and not make us like him, at all, in the slightest. He may even have helped with some of the ad-libbing (one of the funniest scenes is between himself and a brown-skinned individual with a constant "F-you" back-and-forth where the pitch of their two-word insults get lower and lower), and if nothing else he is quite watchable in the role of Ronnie. What works against the movie is that it usually doesn't know what it exactly wants to be, and the director's ambitions get ahead of him. It's a comedy but at the least as dark as a black hole, and as a drama about a psychotic on the edge it gets too crude and obvious with white trash bits. It has a similar level of awkward tension fused with a sense of humor that is meant to illicit laughs from the protagonist's chutzpah and go-for-broke quality like Hill's The Foot Fist Way, maybe its only real link.

To be fair, I wasn't the biggest fan of that film, even as I can understand its appeal as a cult favorite. Maybe Observe and Report will get that too. I was astonished at times where the film went to with taking its character's exploits to a dangerous but somewhat logical conclusion. Other times I did indeed laugh a good deal, either from a moment of real randomness (I did like the joke on the twin Asian guards, "You're my infantry, if I lose one, God gives me another"). I can't say I exactly liked the movie a good deal, but I do respect it. It will split an audience as to what the hell it even is, or if it's as funny as it might be or if it follows its Taxi Driver roots to full-tilt. It's a true-blue curio, and I wouldn't either recommend it or tell you it's comedy poison.

An anonymous flasher exposes himself to shoppers in the Forest Ridge Mall parking lot. The head of mall security, Ronnie Barnhardt (Seth Rogen), makes it his mission to catch the flasher. He is helped by Charles (Jesse Plemons), Dennis (Michael Pena), and the Yuen twins (John Yuan and Matthew Yuan). Ronnie's dream girl, Brandi (Anna Faris) is flashed the next day, and she becomes hysterical. Detective Harrison (Ray Liotta) comes and takes over the situation, this makes Ronnie very angry. Ronnie decides to take the case into his own hands.

A incredibly disgusting film where Seth Rogen is at his funniest, but a great performance by Rogen cannot save this crude film. Observe and Report is a very dark and unpleasant experience. A cliché thing to say, but I found myself looking at the clock waiting for this film to end. Besides for Rogen Observe and Report has very few laughs. The perfect example of why you can't base and entire films laughs on dirty humor. Some of the most unfortunate, and unwanted nudity I have even had to sit through. Jody Hill tries to shock and awe viewers will dark humor, and a unique storyline, but instead creates and unfortunate film. The most surprising thing about this film is that even while the film is very tough to sit through, Rogen's performance still almost carries the film.

Jody Hill is the co-creator and executive producer of the HBO series Eastbound and Down. Eastbount and Down has dark humor and a very outrageous plot as like Observe and Report, but Observe and Report is not able to link together as well. Hill's first film The Foot Fist Way was seen by Adam McKay and Will Ferrell who bought the distribution rights. And also developed a cult following. Hill was allowed on the set of Knocked Up, and he fell in love with Seth Rogen's acting style. He became even more of a Rogen fan after the release of Superbad. Hill both directed and wrote the script for Observe and Report. Unfortunately it just didn't have as great of an effect as his previous work. Observe and Report's script is very poorly made. Hill's direction is well done, but the film is an absolute mess.

Seth Rogen's performance is one of the best and hilarious performances from a comedy since probably Steve Carell's in 40 Year Old Virgin. Besides for Rogen there are no other performances worth mentioning. Anna Faris as Brandi is a very untalented performance. Ray Liotta as Detective Harrison is nothing special, no lines or scenes worth mentioning. One performance does not keep a film in motion. Each time Rogen is off the screen this film just crashes and burns.

Observe and Report only grossed about 25 million in the box office, one of the lowest grossing films that Rogen has stared in. This film had plenty of hype. Rogen as the lead, the co-creator of Eastbound and Down as the director, and also starring Ray Liotta. But like so many comedy films, it disappointed. It seems like each year there are more and more gross- out comedies that are released. Hopefully this film will help people realize that these films very rarely work, but probably not. The amount of awful nudity in this film will make you have to check and make sure you are not at a Jackass film. Observe and Report is a film you need to brace yourself to sit through. A film Rogen fans will want to pass on, and if you are a Jody Hill fan you too will be disappointed.

Observe and Report. No, it is not a ripoff of Paul Blart: Mall Cop, lets get that out of the way right now. This movie has been troubled since the very beginning and has been disowned by critics for being too dark to be funny. Dark? Yes, this movie has its share of politically incorrect humor and gratuitous violence played up for laughs. But to call it not funny…. I simply cannot fathom why anyone did. This movie is a laugh-out-loud spectacle. Its almost as good in the way that Bad Santa was good. Seth Rogen even plays his character akin to Robert DeNiro as Travis Bickle in Taxi Driver (minus the Oscar worthiness and anything that made Travis Bickle a classic character of course, I'm not equating Rogen to DeNiro). The rest of the cast exemplified terrific comedic timing, especially Ray Liotta. If your looking for laughs, this movie is up your ally. Its in the same league as Kick-Ass and Bad Santa for sure. As for the critics… well… prior to the film's release, the stock market crashed. I blame the economy for this one. Times are a little bit better, and so is this movie. Give it a watch.