Rating: 2 Pulses
Starring: Seth Rogan, Ray Liotta, Anna Faris
Written and directed by Jody Hill
Rated R
Jody Hill relishes the asshole Everyman, finding pathos in the unlikeable more than anything else. His short resume includes the HBO hit series “Eastbound & Down” and this bilious debacle. In “Eastbound,” at least Kenny Powers’ vulgar narcissism is backed up by his fleeting, though memorable baseball career, and counterbalanced by the big-hearted small town that puts up with his jackassery. In Observe and Report, however, the teddy bear of comedy Seth Rogen tries to give Kenny Powers a lesson in alienating people as Ronnie Barnhardt: Mall Cop.##M:read more]##
What ensues is an hour-and-a-half of hateful humor and half-laughs. Set in the human watering hole of AnyMall, USA, the dreary refuge of deferred dreams and disappointment, Ronnie Barnhardt, swimming in a sea of assholes, keeps his psychotic head held high with Christ-like delusions of heroism and valor. Rather than being a keeper of the peace, Rogen self-importantly struts around like the head hall monitor, beating and tasering whomever he pleases. In his mall, where souls are turned sinister by the unyielding weight of meaninglessness, “hello” has been deposed by the emphatic “f*** you,” aptly reflecting everyone’s shared and buried self-hatred.
Patton Oswalt shows up as a venom-spitting coffee shop manager (not as funny as it sounds) and Aziz Ansari gives one of the few funny exchanges as a womanizing kiosk worker. But the rest of the one-note supporting cast, the lisping, blinged-out side-kick; the dorky Asian twins; blow-up doll turned real-live actress Anna Faris; etc., can’t fill the void of humor left by the miscast Rogen, whose outward lovability and Bugs Bunny teeth aren’t enough to elicit empathy or laughter for a character with so few redeeming qualities.
Even Jody Hill’s stylish and capable directing, aping Wes Anderson’s borrowed technique of slow motion action?usually walking or running?set to iconic music, can’t dress up this missed opportunity to turn misery into comedy.
There’s a scene in the film where a cop hides in a closet to overhear Ronnie’s reaction to some bad news. Half-way through the news, he exits the closet and says, “I thought this was gonna be funny, but its actually kind of sad,” and walks away. Yep.
