Second mall-cop flick balances comedy, violence

The hero doesn’t always have to be the good guy.

Ronnie Barnhardt, played by a beardless… The hero doesn’t always have to be the good guy.

Ronnie Barnhardt, played by a beardless Seth Rogen, is a mall cop. He’s unstable, sexist and violent. There’s never a time when he isn’t obsessing about guns and bullets. A 13-year-old version of Ronnie would terrify most parents and school officials. He would probably be forcefully sent to therapy.

The grown-up Ronnie, though, patrols the mall day after day, keeping the peace and delivering justice where it’s deserved. And if Ronnie is the sheriff of the mall, then he must have deputies. Dennis, Ronnie’s lisp-endowed, right-hand man, the Yuen twins — of which Ronnie says, ‘[If] one of you dies, God gave me another one.’ — and Charles, the youngest of the group, all follow Ronnie religiously.’

But after a streaking pervert parades through the parking lot, throwing open his trench coat to women entering their cars, followed by a robbery occurring after hours, life gets confusing for Ronnie.

It would be weird to say that ‘Observe and Report’ is a comedy. The film is a genre-bending mixture of hilarity and drama. A cocktail of laughs and impressive fight scenes. Sometimes it gets itself trapped in no-man’s land, trying too hard to be a comedy or too hard to be serious.

While investigating the criminal matters, Robby tries to woo Brandi, another stereotypical idiotic blonde woman portrayed by Anna Faris. Although another beautiful mall barista delivers him free coffee like a girl with a crush, Ronnie is oblivious to her feelings. The romance is cliche and not that funny.

‘Observe and Report’ comes off as a strange combination of ‘Taxi Driver’ and old Westerns. There are times when Ronnie is the greatest man alive. He is what every one of us strives to be, fighting normalcy, believing in what’s right, taking names and kicking ass. Other times, it’s hard not to wonder if maybe Ronnie causes more problems than he solves.

But when looking at the real cops, in this case Detective Harrison (an aging Ray Liotta), justice seems to have sided with Ronnie. Harrison enters the picture after the pervert first shows his, umm, face.

Harrison is a jerk. Given that Ronnie is a nuisance to the detective throughout the entire investigation, some anger is understandable. But sometimes one can only ponder the differences between Harrison and Ronnie and who is really in the right.

Morality aside, the film is entertaining and is well put-together. The cinematography and style choices are surprisingly cool for a movie about mall cops. Even better is the film’s musical selections, which are applied lavishly. The soundtrack makes a movie about a goof into a movie about a suave hero.

Perhaps the best parts of ‘Observe and Report,’ a movie obsessed with doing physical harm to other people, are its fight scenes. There is a romance between cinematography and romance, especially in a fight scene between Ronnie and some neighborhood thugs. Fight choreography never appeared so sweet.

But if it was the 13-year-old Ronnie kicking ass in the bad parts of town, would ‘Observe and Report’ be nearly as awesome? Teachers and parents would be left with quite the lump in their throats.