Movie Review: Paul Blart: Mall Cop

	RATING: PG GENRE: Comedy RELEASE DATE: January 16, 2009 RUNNING TIME: 87 minutes VIOLENCE FACTOR: There is some violence — probably more than is necessary —in scenes involving armed criminals, but most of it is played for laughs. BAD WORDS: A mild reference or two, hardly noticeable RACY?: No OTHER THINGS TO KNOW GRANDS

When criminals take over a shopping mall, a security guard springs into action

by Bill Wine

CRITIQUE:

It may not be art. But it's Blart. And it's funny.

Comic Kevin James, best known as the lead on the TV sitcom, The King of Queens, gets to carry a movie on his own as the lead and title character in Paul Blart: Mall Cop. And because James also cowrote the screenplay for PB: MC, he gets the lion's share of the credit for its funniness.

Blart is a lovable loser, a mild-mannered single dad, and a corpulent security guard, patrolling New Jersey's West Orange Pavilion Mall on his trusty Segway. He has applied to become a state trooper eight times, but he can't seem to pass the training test.

His typical workday includes directing patrons to stores, refereeing disputes between shoppers and merchants, and fantasizing about performing heroic feats of derring-do as an actual police officer.

On Black Friday, the day after Thanksgiving and the busiest shopping day of the year,  criminals take over the mall and hold customers hostage. The police can't get into the mall, so it's up to Blart to foil the plot. When this unnecessarily violent thriller- element kicks in, we don’t buy it, but it gives director Steve Carr a chance to parody action-flick conventions in a way that grandparents will appreciate.

And this star vehicle is James's show all the way. As a performer, he gains our sympathy early on and performs slapstick gags with aplomb, more than willing (in the tradition of Jackie Gleason) to use his overweight body for laughs. And as a screenwriter, he contributes a handful of laugh-out-loud one-liners to the otherwise ordinary narrative.

Silly, sweet-natured, and — for the most part — grandchild-friendly, this comedy with a thriller thrust (as opposed to an action movie with jokes) is more Try Hard than Die Hard.

But Paul Blart: Mall Cop just might be going in the comedy books as the movie that launched the career of Kevin James: movie star.

Other recent reviews by Bill Wine include Hotel for Dogs, Bride Wars, and Marley & Me.