Director: Steve Carr (Dr. Dolittle 2)Cast: Kevin James (King of Queens, I Now Pronounce You Chuck & Larry), Jayma Mays (Heroes, Ugly Betty), Keir O'Donnell (Wedding Crashers), Raini Rodriguez, Adam Ferrara (Rescue Me), Bobby Cannavale (Third Watch)
The Deal: Paul Blart (James) is stuck working as a security guard at a mall because his hypoglycemia has caused him to fail his police training test, and he's got a huge crush on Amy (Mays), the girl who works at the Un-Be-Weave-Able kiosk selling hair extensions. One day, a gang of criminals seize control of the mall attempting to steal all of the credit card codes worth $30 million. With Amy among the hostages, Paul remains in the mall and puts what little police training he has to the test in an attempt to save the day. But when his daughter Maya (Rodriguez) becomes involved in the fray, the game changes.
Thoughts: This is one of those films that drifts in between being good enough to praise and bad enough to trash. The story is ridiculous, the humor is hit or miss, and the acting is nothing you haven't seen a million times before. The first half of the film is used entirely as set-up for the last half, and almost every joke here fails miserably. Thankfully, the second half of the film is decently entertaining. The best jokes land here, and the action is entertaining enough, bordering on almost being suspenseful. It's not a huge success, and large parts of the plot defy even the most basic forms of common sense.
The performances are exactly like every performance these people have ever done. Most of the actors are television veterans more so than film stars, and it shows. Kevin James is funny at times, but his character becomes repetitive, and he's best suited for roles like in King of Queens. I like Jayma Mays, she's a fresh face and quite pretty, but I'm afraid she's just going to become the red-haired version of Anna Faris (who coincidentally stars in the other mall cop movie, Observe and Report). I did not recognize Keir O'Donnell as the creepy gay brother from Wedding Crashers, but he was OK here. Not quite menacing enough to be the bad guy, but passable. Raini Rodriguez stands out with the best overall performance. I think her talents may allow her to branch in to more serious films.
At the end of the day, this is just another Happy Madison film, though this one has a bonus, there's no Rob Schneider. Instead we get Erick Avari, the bearded guy in Mr. Deeds. I don't know what it is about him, but I find him hilarious in small supporting roles. I had hoped the hypoglycemia would have provided for more jokes, but it's used very predictably, though Blart eating the dirty sucker for the sugar was funny. The use of Segways was a terrible decision. Though it was meant to be funny, its use here seemed very old hat and hence, not very funny.
Verdict: A mediocre comedy with a few decent laughs. Mildly entertaining in its last half, but most likely a film you'll forget about. ☆☆1/2
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