Dull, unimaginative storyline brings little to the big screen

Safety never takes a holiday. Paul Blart (Kevin James), a middle-aged, overweight security guard who takes his job way too seriously, is all about safety. The opening scene of this comedy is Blart trying to complete the training obstacle course for the New Jersey State Patrol. He is exceeding audience expectations when his weight and a medical condition, hypoglycemia, literally stops him in his tracks.

Instead of living his dream as a state trooper, Blart takes to monitoring a New Jersey shopping center as a mall cop. He lives with his mother and daughter (his wife left him after tricking him into marrying her for a green card), has no love life and rides his Segway like a pro.

Blart is an inventive Segway driver. He uses the personal transportation machine to monitor the mall, run away from small dogs, perform tricks and entrust it to be his sidekick on his most important mission yet, saving the citizens at the shopping center.

Blart is keeping the mall safe (while playing “Guitar Hero” at the arcade) when a gang of “Matrix”-like criminals attack and take over the mall at gunpoint. The criminals take hostages including Blart’s dream girl, Amy (Jayma Mays) and his daughter Maya (Raini Rodriguez). The drive to save his family is what motivates Blart to continue to fight criminals.

The only semi-believable villain is the leader of the criminals, Veck Sims (Keir O’Donnell). Veck took a job as a security guard at the mall. He was trained by Blart and learned the inside secrets about the shopping center. He uses it to his advantage and tries to beat Blart at his own game.

James brings little comedy to the undeniably dull, unimaginative script and unorganized direction of the film. Co-written by Kevin James and Nick Bakey, Mall Cop keeps up with the normal “stupid” funny trend of a “Happy Gilmore” production, but takes the genre to a new level. There were few times where the audience was simultaneously laughing and understanding the immature comedy that was being played in front of them.

The script in this film was lacking in quality entertainment as there was no true plot. Guy is considered a loser, guy meets girl of his dreams, girl gets into trouble and guy rescues – was the entirety of the plot. Directed by Steve Carr, “Paul Blart: Mall Cop” falls short of expectations.

Although disappointing for the most part, there were a few good points to the movie. The idea of a hostage takeover in a mall has not been overdone, which added a new angle. Also, never before was there a Segway-loving, overachieving mall cop running around trying to save everyone. Paul Blart was able to prove to everyone in his past he wasn’t a complete failure. His fatherly side appears when he’s forced to rescue his daughter from Veck.

Overall, “Paul Blart: Mall Cop” was disappointing. There were few humorous moments and a lot of amateur directing and acting. If you really want to see this film, wait until it comes to DVD and make it a one-time rental.

Contact all correspondent Rebecca Mohr at [email protected].