Warner Bros. | 2009 | 86 mins | Rated R
Perhaps we should call this the year of the mall security guy. In January, there was the Kevin James hit Paul Blart: Mall Cop; three months later, Observe and Report, another movie about a mall cop with delusions of grandeur hit theaters. However, that’s where the similarities end. Where Mall Cop takes a comedic approach to mall security, those responsible for Observe and Report tend to subscribe to the Travis Bickle approach toward justice.
As the head of security at a local mall, Ronnie Barnhardt (Seth Rogen), takes his job very seriously. When management receives reports about illicit activity occurring on the premises, he takes them very personally. Not only are they receiving complaints about a strange man exposing himself to women in the parking lot, but after-hours robberies have become a common occurrence. Ronnie warns his crew to be on high alert, but his rag tag bunch strikes you as a bunch who couldn’t find their way out of a paper bag. There’s Ronnie’s right hand man Dennis (Michael Peña), new recruit Charles (Jesse Plemons) and “expendable” twin brothers Matt and John Yuen (playing characters with their own names).
When Ronnie’s dream girl, make-up counter girl Brandi (Anna Faris), becomes the flashers next victim, management brings in police detective Harrison (Ray Liotta) to help catch him. Ronnie is absolutely livid that someone else should be called into his territory. He believes he and his team is more than capable of solving the case and would like to use it to get Brandi to notice him. He quickly learns however, that Brandi’s “affection” isn’t hard to get.
Detective Harrison is quickly annoyed by Ronnie’s constant meddling in his investigation. Things really come to a head when Ronnie fingers fingers his nemesis, a Middle Eastern kiosk employee named Saddamn (Aziz Ansari) as both the flasher and the robber. Now, if this were the aforementioned Mall Cop or a straight comedy, the cop would simply get exasperated by his actions and the audience would be expected to laugh at his tomfoolery. Not here: we may laugh, but there’s an uncomfortable edge to it; Harrison shouts angrily at Ronnie, berating him for get in the way. Frankly, the cop is absolutely right and the movie doesn’t even try to tell us otherwise.
Soon enough, Ronnie decides it’s time to move on to bigger things. He visits the local police department, learns about recruitment and jumps right into the process. He passes the physical exam with flying colors, but fails the psychological exam after revealing a bipolar disorder and a frightening desire to shoot things.
With his first film The Foot Fist Way, writer/director Jody Hill showed he had a knack for who are delusional and hard to like, while sprinkling in a bit of comedy. What makes Hill’s work particularly noteworthy is that his protagonists have their shortcomings exposed for everyone to see. Having said that, don’t go into this film expecting a rougher Paul Blart; the two films couldn’t be more different. Observe and Report is dark and violent, complete with scenes of alcoholism, heroin use, vandalism, borderline rape, child abuse, constant profanity, and the sight of an obese man with a small penis running around naked.
While there are some genuinely funny moments, the ultimate undoing of Observe and Report is the fact the script introduces several characters and subplots, but ultimately fails to develop them, which makes the film feel rather underdeveloped. We are left waiting for the payoff from ideas and comic situations that are developed in the first and second act, but instead most of them are either completely forgotten about or glossed over.
Observe and Report is presented in 2.40:1 widescreen using the VC-1 codec on a single-layered BD25 disc. The quality is fairly consistent with lower-budgeted comedies. Colors are even with just a slight pinkish hue to fleshtones. The image is sharp and clean, while detail is good but not what would likely be considered reference quality. Black levels are crisp and inky, giving definition to the print, while contrast is surprisingly solid.
I didn’t detect any major compression issues. The print itself was clean, with no dust or dirt specks invading the presentation. Warner Bros. has given Observe and Report a fine transfer, one that I thought looked better than when the film was in theaters.
The audio is available in TrueHD 5.1. As is the case with many of Warner Bros. recent high-definition releases, the soundtrack here is very solid. Since Observe and Report is a dialogue heavy film, surrounds aren’t really used to their full potential much of the time. However, some of the more discrete background sounds do appear in the rear surrounds on occasion. Dialogue is exceptionally well mixed and clear. LFE is fairly subdued, with only a handful of moments where bass effects are noticeable. While this presentation won’t knock anyone’s socks off, for a an essentially non-action film, this soundtrack does an excellent job.
The audio choices also include English, French, Spanish and Portuguese Dolby Digital 5.1 with French, Spanish and Portuguese subtitles and English captions for the hearing impaired.
Observe and Report on blu-ray includes the following special features:
• Additional Scenes (27 minutes, SD) — There’s some funny stuff here, but most will likely agree that putting any of it in the film wouldn’t have made the final product any better.
• Gag Reel (12 minutes, SD) – Your typical gag reel
• Filmmaker PiP Track — Director Jody Hill and actors Seth Rogen and Anna Faris chime in with this somewhat dull PiP track. it’s nice seeing Warner put forth the effort to provide Blu-ray enthusiasts with something exclusive. I just wish the track could have been juxtaposed with story on-set behind the scenes footage or something more innovative to hold interest.
• Seth Rogen and Anna Faris: Unscripted (7 minutes, SD) — An outtake reel highlighting Faris and Rogen.
• Basically Training (7 minutes, SD) — A fairly straight forward EPK featurette about the fighting and stunts of the film.
• Forest Ridge Mall Security Recruitment Video (3 minutes, SD) — A faux recruitment video (featuring the cast), degraded to look like fifth generation VHS.
• BD-Live — Warner’s usual web-based features are here (community screening, my commentary), but as of press time, there was nothing exclusive for this release.
• Digital Copy (SD) — For transfer to your portable media device.
Observe and Report will be released on September 22, 2009. It will be available in various formats including Blu-ray, DVD, On-Demand and via digital download.
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