Observe and Report

Observe and Report is so bad, it made me start looking forward to Hannah Montana: The Movie.

Seth Rogen stars as Ronnie Barnhardt – the head of security at Forest Ridge Mall (No, this is not a sequel to Paul Blart: Mall Cop. That movie was funnier and didn’t make me want to avoid the mall in favor of online shopping for the rest of my life.). A flasher has started to “terrorize” women in the parking lot, and Ronnie sees this as a big chance to prove himself. Along the way, we watch his attempts to win over the object of his affection, Brandi (Anna Faris), and his painful slide towards insanity.

Does Ronnie have what it takes to crack the case and get the girl?

Somewhere in the middle of all the anger, meanness, violence and male nudity, Observe and Report had a chance to be a ridiculous, funny farce. Sadly, the fun becomes overwhelmed by nastiness.

Writer/director Jody Hill, as he has done with East Bound and Down and The Foot Fist Way, tries to create supposedly funny, mockable characters who are on the fringe of society, driven equally by feelings and fears of inadequacy, delusion and, most of all, anger. However, the reality of this anger pushes these characters from the silly category straight into the frightening “let’s get the police to put them under 24-hour surveillance and take away any sharp objects” category.

I keep using this word over and over again, but Observe and Report is full of anger, and not in a funny way. Sure, the audience gets a chance to giggle from time to time at an inappropriate comment, outrageous behavior or a silly voice, but those moments are negated by the uneasy feelings and shock the audience has to face. This is not the kind of familiar, and mostly harmless, uneasiness you get with a show like The Office. It’s an uneasiness that makes you wish you weren’t watching Observe and Report because these people are despicable and desperately need psychological counseling.

Sadly, some funny performances are lost in the cloud of cruelty. Faris finds the right mix of idiocy and ignorance to make Brandi detestable while also making us laugh. While other actors are trying to prove how horrible their characters are, Faris makes Brandi gleefully unaware of her shortcomings. She’s not a good person, but, at least, Brandi doesn’t instill fear in us.

Meanwhile, Rogen is the one who suffers the most from Observe and Report’s horrifying tone. If you worked with this guy, you would call the company psychiatrist or 911. Ronnie is not on a journey to self-awareness or betterment or success. He is on a descent into madness that isn’t entertaining in any way. You fear for this guy instead of laughing at him, and it is painful to watch him spiral out of control. That’s not entertainment. That’s like watching an entire movie about the guy at work you always worried would go postal on the place.

I heard plenty of people praise Observe and Report for being different, but it is different because most people don't want to make a movie this bad.

Observe and Report is rated R for pervasive language, graphic nudity, drug use, sexual content and violence.