Mauled cop comedy is Rogen's dark counterpart to popular 'Paul Blart'
"Observe and Report" is a dangerously funny movie, an unnerving shock-o-rama of laughs, blood, sex and swear words that actually earns the right to be described by the overused adjective "edgy."
Where the popular "Paul Blart: Mall Cop" wallowed in sweet, safe, innocuous predictability, Jody Hill's "Observe and Report" indulges in gross, obnoxious behavior that constantly wanders into dark and uncharted comic territory.
Blood, violence, virtual date rape, indecent exposure, racist tirades and drug-induced crime sprees head the expansive list of anti-PC topics tackled by writer/director Hill, who gleefully pushes us to the brink of icky discomfort, then pulls us back before we fall into the abyss.
At a crucial time when Seth Rogen is dangerously close to becoming typecast as a gelatinous, lovable dork, "Observe and Report" does for him what the lethal action film "Die Hard" did for the once-pudgy Bruce Willis.
Rogen plays Ronnie Barnhardt, the security chief at the Forest Ridge Mall. He's a hefty fast-food junkie and gun buff who blows away targets with weapons he can't legally carry.
Ronnie is anti-gay and openly racist, especially when he hurls abuse at an Islamic mall vendor. Ronnie treats his gun-nut twin Asian subordinates (John and Matt Yuan) with a hint of condescension.
He reluctantly befriends his second-in-command, the lisping Dennis (Chicago's own Michael Pena), but only after ingesting drugs and going on a vigilante rampage against skateboarding teens.
Ronnie has the hots for the snobby vixen Brandi (Anna Faris), a pushed-up blonde at the cosmetics counter, despite that the ultra-nice Nell (Collette Wolfe) really likes him.
Brandi agrees to go out with Ronnie only after he nearly puts her in a headlock.
Then, a crazed flasher assaults women shoppers at Forest Ridge, and Hill's floating camera relentlessly tracks him across the parking lot, putting us in involuntary cahoots with the assailant.
"This disgusting pervert is the best thing that ever happened to me!" Ronnie says. Given a purpose, Ronnie's dream to be a real cop takes center stage, until he's upstaged by local detective Harrison, played by tough-guy character actor Ray Liotta without a shred of empathy.
Harrison and Ronnie instantly go for each other's throats. It's not until the cop deliberately leaves Ronnie to die in a bad section of town that "Observe and Report" reveals its raw and nasty sense of humor - Ronnie practically kills an entire street gang.
Rogen makes a perfect Ronnie, a bipolar, quasi-fascist with all kinds of issues. His dad deserted him. His mom (Celia Weston), a bingeing alcoholic, blames Ronnie for her marital breakup.
When Ronnie launches into stream-of-conscious narration, he clearly parodies avenging cabbie Travis Bickle from "Taxi Driver." (While waxing about parting clouds, Ronnie stops and says, "Let me do that over!" And does.)
Before "Observe and Report," Hill gave us "The Fist Foot Way," another comedy about misguided machismo starring Danny McBride as a martial arts bully.
Rogen's film embellishes on Hill's fascination with men and their default self-images as righteous tough guys. In Hill's world, nice guys don't come in at all.
"Observe and Report" does succumb to dull spots, and undermines its visual gags by allotting them too much screen time. (A quick, full-body shot of the flasher is shockingly funny. A flasher chase scene? Numbing.)
"In these dark times," Ronnie says, "the world has no use for another scared man!"
Or a filmmaker scared to offend "Paul Blart: Mall Cop" fans.
<p class="factboxheadblack">"Observe and Report"</p> <p class="News">Three stars</p> <p class="News"><b>Starring: </b>Seth Rogen, Anna Faris, Ray Liotta, Michael Pena</p> <p class="News"><b>Directed by:</b> Jody Hill</p> <p class="News"><b>Other:</b> A Warner Bros. release. Rated R (drug use, language, nudity, sexual situations, violence). 85 minutes.</p>