Viewed in
2009
Premise
Seth Rogen is a mall security guard who takes his job too seriously.
Who should watch
Those who like offbeat comedies and not-so-charming characters.
Thoughts
Coming off the heels of 'Paul Blart Mall Cop' (which I refused to watch), I'm sure this was much different and better than the other.
Someone told me it was a dark comedy. While there were some elements, it was more off-beat than dark. Nevertheless, I agree that this film was not for the masses. I'm pretty sure of this, because I laughed out loud a lot. It deserved its R rating, with drugs, nudity, cussing, and male genitalia. In fact, I loved the scene with the literal translation of d***head.
The best part of the film were the performances, especially by Rogen. His character oozed of a delusional and clueless loser without being creepy and despicable. Anna Faris was very funny as the uninterested love interest. Ray Liotta and Patton Oswalt also delivered scene-stealing performances.
Clocking in at less than 90 minutes, this film felt way longer than that. Part of the problem was that all the characters were hilariously flawed/likable, but not enough for me to care about them. Also, the story meandered; was the plot about Rogen's character hunting the flashing pervert, or his inability to see his flaws?
This film had the unique humor that I crave, but without a good story or lovable characters, it was hard to enjoy it as much as I wanted to.
What I would change
Editing in the first third was too choppy. It felt too much like shot, pause, shot, pause, shot, etc. instead of one fluid scene.
