Observe and Report

Anna Faris is in this movie and I have always liked her. She is more than cute and plays a cosmetic employee named Brandi. It is good to see her in a movie that is not a spoof. Albeit she is funny in those movies.

Seth Rogen is back and is the star in this hilarious movie as Ronnie Barnhardt. He is a nutcase security guard at a local mall. Oops, he is the chief security guard at the mall. The mall resembles Arizona Mills in Tempe but I am not sure where it is at. The movie never specifies.

Ray Liotta plays Detective Harrison and he is working in this circus case of a serial flasher who streaks across the day time parking lot in front of woman randomly. Ronnie takes this personal, it is his mall and the pride he has for his job is at an unhealthy rate and in this case it reaches a feverish pitch. The problem is that Ronnie is a fool, a blowhard, and has little common sense. He also treats people poorly. This behavior drives Harrison crazy and they become at odds.

We can not blame this all on Ronnie, his loony behavior is partly attributed to his mother who boasts out loud to all his friends and co workers that she used to screw all of his high school friends. This can obviously have some disturbing affects on a growing child.

Ronnie does not like Harrison movie onto his mall turf. So part of this movie is spent with Ronnie returning that favor. He applies to become a police officer, and breaks into Harrison's car for a ride a long. The writers stole a page from the powerful and riveting movie Training Day in this scene. Harrison drives Ronnie into the heart of the ghetto and gives him some little small talk about the history of this violent corner. And how the police, with the hard work from Harrison, were able to stem the drug flow distributed from this small area. Harrison placates Ronnie by saying they started off on the wrong foot and how Harrison will allow Ronnie to walk around the area. Ronnie wants to prove himself. When Ronnie is about 50 feet from the car, Harrison starts the car and drives off.

Ronnie is upset and is soon approached by a child. This child offers to sell Harrison some drugs-cocaine. Ronnie, in all his ignorance and zealousness, attempts to make a citizen arrest on this child. At 10 pm at night, no one else is around. The child's father walks into the scene with his gangster friends. They pull a gun on Ronnie but when they are argueing amongst themselves, Ronnie grabs a pipe laying on the street and destroys 6 men and arrests the child. He must have walked the child back to the police station, punking and cussing him the entire way. That is what he is doing in the police office while Harrison is laughing with his detective buddies about what he did and how he hopes Ronnie is terminated. He is shocked when the opposite occurs, not only does Ronnie escape unscathed, he mopped up the local element and made an arrest. Then he hugs rather than strikes Harrison and thanks him by whispering in his ear how he is so happy that Harrison showed confidence in him and gave him this striking opportunity. Harrison's friends are about to die laughing. Harrison is shocked. It is quite entertaining.

This movie is funny. The Seth Rogen and Jonah Hill movies like to show a picture of a dick though, I do not like that. Doubt any guy does. The movie is entertaining throughout and the insufferable Ronnie is non stop and hilarious. He does not become a police officer because he fails the psychological test. He acts like he is shooting the woman psychologist, he tells a horrific and disturbing story and acts like it is no big deal. Then he assumes he won by having a premature party with his mother, friends/co workers. He is oblivious to the reality around him.

Apparently he is carrying an actual gun at the end of this movie. The streaker is nabbed by Ronnie in a action packed final scene. He gets his job back at the mall. He lost is because he went berzerk at Brandi's cosmetic booth for being unfaithful. What did he expect though, she is shallow, brain dead, and a drug addict.

The movie was not that long but it was hilarious. I am not sure if it was better than Pineapple Express though because that movie had a longer story line and involved more characters.

I give this movie three stars.***