I like a good comedy movie when it is based on an occupation that doesn’t always seem all that glamorous. A good example of that would be Clerks. which came out in 1994 and was directed by Kevin Smith. Much of Clerks. was based on his experiences working at a convenience store. In fact he was still working there while he made the movie. Smith put in a bunch of little gripes that retail workers usually have and was able to unload it all in a funny and clever way that only people who have worked in retail can truly appreciate. I wish I could say that Paul Blart: Mall Cop 2 does the same thing for the occupation of security officer, but unfortunately it is not very funny nor clever.
It is six years after the events in the first Mall Cop movie where Paul Blart (Kevin James) was able to save his local mall from being taken down by some ridiculous parkour extreme sports gang. He has fell on hard times after his wife(the ridiculously hot girl from the first movie) divorces him after just a few days of being married and his mother dies by getting hit by a milk truck. Yes. His mother gets hit by a milk truck. Things look up for Blart though as he gets invited to a security convention in Las Vegas. He decides to use it as a vacation with his daughter Maya (Raini Rodriguez) who is leaving for college soon.
I kind of like Kevin James although there is something about his movies that just don’t connect with me. They always come off as a little bit too stupid. James implements a lot of slapstick into his movies which is fine, but unfortunately in doing so he just comes off like a cheap knock off of Chris Farley who was easily funnier and could do slapstick humor much more effectively. I liked Kevin James on The King of Queens and after seeing a few of his movies I really think he probably should have stayed down on the sitcom level. In this movie his character Paul Blart just comes off as an unlikable buffoon and the movie overall like it’s main character just stumbles all the way to the end. I could say that the movie is mediocre, but that would honestly be a slap to the face to filmmakers who make movies that actually reach the level of mediocre, and let me tell you, Paul Blart: Mall Cop 2 falls way short of mediocre.
I watched the first Paul Blart movie a few days ago. It had been six years since I had seen it and I remember thinking it was not all that bad. Man was I wrong. It comes off flat and unfunny just like the sequel which I would dare say is actually worse. I knew I was in trouble when the movie started to feel long around the half-way point. Now I hate it when movies are too long, but this movie is only ninety-four minutes! The filmmakers may have been able to fix that if the jokes were funnier, but I honestly only half chuckled at maybe two jokes and one of them actually involved Mini Kiss who makes a small cameo in the movie. That is another problem. If you have Mini Kiss in your movie why wouldn’t you have them perform in a scene. Instead they just make a quick cameo riding on the elevator with Paul Blart.
Like the first movie this one is not a total miss. One of the things I thought was decent about the first movie was the ridiculous parkour extreme sports gang that was taking down the mall. The stunts by them were good and there is also a somewhat creative scene where Blart takes a few of them out in the Rainforest Cafe. In this movie the bad guys aren’t anywhere near as interesting and the stunts aren’t quite as good, but they are sort of creative especially when Blart is being chased by a bad guy onto the stage of a Vegas water dancing show even if the direction of the camera was pretty sketchy taking a lot away from the scene. There is also a decent fight scene where Blart’s security guard friends join him to fight the bad guys in a parody based on modern slow motion fight scenes in contemporary action movies although the scene makes no logical sense due to the fact that the bad guys had guns earlier and could have just shot every one of the overweight security guards. Somehow they are conveniently missing their guns for this scene.
My biggest problem with this movie is that it just isn’t subtle in any way. A lot of modern movies have that problem, especially comedies, and it is a trend that really needs to stop. It feels like the filmmakers feel as though they can get away with this paint by numbers story and direction because they use the excuse that movies like Paul Blart: Mall Cop 2 are made for families and are kid friendly. That is ridiculous, because all this movie does is deliver surface level bullcrap while there are other kids movies out there such as The Lego Movie, that are interesting and extremely creative. If you want a good mall cop movie I suggest skipping this one and watching 2009’s dark comedy Observe and Report starring Seth Rogen, which isn’t a perfect movie, but it sure as hell tries a lot harder than either one of the worthless Paul Blart movie.
Dave’s Rating- ★½ (1½) out of ★★★★★(5)
