director: Steve Carr
writer: Kevin James
starring: Kevin James, Jayma Mays
genre: Comedy
Film is a form of art but also of entertainment. Sometimes the line is crossed and there are many arguments to which side of cinema is better. Me I'm personally in the middle. This sometimes is a problem that many films face by being too far on one side than the other and subsequently alienating it's audience members. Paul Blart is a simple film made for families that demand no intelligence whatsoever from the films they want to see. In that specific sense Paul Blart succeeds in being a funny film for that market. For everybody else it will be a film easy to forget.
Paul Blart (Kevin James) is a 30 something year old, single father and mall cop due to his hypoglycemia. Goofy and unlucky Blart does his best day by day to be the best Mall Cop there is. In the mall he falls for a mall clerk in Amy (Jayma Mays). He tries to court her but fails miserably due to his clumsy nature. But when the mall is under attack he will have finally the chance to prove himself to her and show that a clumsy, fat and hypoglycemic mall cop can save the day.
The plot is clichéd beyond belief. There is a music montage, the asshole rival to the girl Paul Blart likes and so on. But we all cant get enough of a underdog film can we? And even though this is clichéd riddled film, Paul Blart manages to be a wonderful underdog character due to actor Kevin James. Clumsy and warmhearted he makes up for the film's mediocrity with quite a few inspired situations.
What surprised me was that this film was a Happy Madison production. For those who don't know the company, it is Adam Sandler's production company. Usually Happy Madison has made sex riddled comedies with lots of profanity and racy jokes e.g. Grandmas's Boy (2006), Deuce Bigalow: Male Gigolo (1999). Its interesting that they are getting into family oriented market. Which is a smart move as it's already payed off big in the box office with Paul Blart (2009) getting 180 million and the Grown Ups (2010) getting 270 million dollars around the world.
If you've got nothing else to do and need something to pass the time Paul Blart isn't a bad choice. For it's mediocrity, chicles it still manages to be a good family film but it's nothing more or less than that.
Personal Rating:
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