Observe and Report (Review)

Observe and Report

Written and Directed By: Jody Hill

Starring: Seth Rogan, Ray Liota, Anna Faris, Michael Pena, and Danny McBride

Observe and Report is a movie about love, acceptance, accomplishment, and the willingness to following your dreams. However, at the same time it is about a Bi-Polar, Delusional. Ego-Maniac of a mall cop (I mean, Head of mall security) that will do anything to get with the hot girl working in cosmetics. Combine those two plot lines and you'll be getting closer to explaining what Observe and Report is really about. What you wouldn't realize is that Observe and report is much, much more than your generic 00's comedy.

Jody Hill is responsible for one of my favorite films of 2006-2007 with his dark and twisted comedy, The Fist Foot Way starring Danny McBride. In The Fist Foot Way (English for Tae Kwon Do) Danny McBride plays a martial arts instructor revelling in his power over the average human being, while in reality he's barely in control of his own sanity, and his marriage. Seth Rogan's Ronnie Bernhardt character in Observe and Report isn't much different, only more hopeless. In reality Ronnie would the bastard son of McBride's Fred Simmons character in The Fist Foot Way.

Ronnie, as head of mall security, believes he is in charge of the safety of the mall, it's employees, the beautiful cosmetic saleswoman, and the hundreds of normal, boring, hopeless, unimportant mall shoppers that crowd the mall everyday. However, in Ronnie's eyes that safety net is penetrated when someone starts flashing mall shoppers in the parking lot of the mall. Soon after the flasher goes one step further and flashes the wrong person, the hot girl from cosmetics. From there it's personal for Ronnie, and his life as head of mall security suddenly has meaning and purpose. He must catch the perpetrator at all costs, and won't let anyone stand in his way.

Jody Hill has managed to craft one of the most interesting, arresting, off the cuff, and surreal films I've ever seen. His fascination with creating characters you "love to hate" but "hate to love" is a refreshing change from the average cookie cutter comedic actor. I'm not going to attempt to categorize the kinds of characters Jody Hill is creating here because I think that each one definitely has similarities with the other but at the same time, each one of the is identifiable in some way to ourselves or someone we might have or do know in our lives.

Overall, Observe and Report is more than just an observation of Jody Hill's characters and film universe. It is a tour de force of characters that earn their roles and do more than justice. They leap out the screen and smack you in the face, and beg you to care about their lives, then 20 minutes later you find yourself wondering why they might be doing at that very second during the movie. And even at the character's lowest and most shocking, you can't help but naturally, whatever your response is. Jody Hill has managed, through the camera lens, to turn the movie screen into a mirror, and not everyone will like what they see.

9/10 - (Don't Miss It)

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