[Blu-Ray Review] PAUL BLART: MALL COP
For once I am at a loss as to how to start a review. Normally, I’ll try and come up with something “snappy” to try and get your attention and make you at least curious enough to continue reading the review to see what I thought. Unfortunately, I’m at a total loss to come up with one for this release!
So, suffice it to say you should carry on reading, just because it’s me and my opinion matters. 
Seriously, I’d seen the trailers for Paul Blart: Mall Cop when it was on theatrical release and thought it looked amusing, but nothing particularly special. But never one to condem a movie before I’ve actually watched it (well, not that often) I popped it into my PS3 and settled down to check it out.
The movie follows a pretty standard tale. The titular Paul Blart is a mall cop (surprise, surprise!) who aspires to be a State Trooper. Unfortunately, his dreams never seem come to fruition through failing the entrance exam due to his health. But that doesn’t stop his dreams, and he takes pride in his job as a mall cop, until he can fulfill his dreams.
Living with his mother and young daughter he also dreams of finding that someone special that he can spend the rest of his life with, but again this seems to be a dream that will remain unfulfilled.
But then one day he encounters Amy, a kiosk worker at the mall, and it seems that Paul may finally have found the woman of his dreams. There’s only one thing that stands in their way – and that’s the gang of robbers who take over the mall on Black Friday who plan to steal the almost $30 million dollars worth of sales from the shops in the mall. They just so happen to also take hostage Amy and a number of other kiosk workers, who are the only friends Paul has, and there is only one person standing between the robbers and success.
Paul Blart.
And that rather slim plot is the sum of the movie. And while it is as cliche ridden as any underdog story there is, there’s something about it that just “works”. Kevin James is perfect as the main character and he manages to turn Blart from being quite possibly very annoying and dumb into a likeable and misunderstood character with a heart of gold.
This is his movie through and through, having co-written the story with Nick Bakay (who he worked with on King Of Queens), you can tell that he has put a lot of care into the character.
The relationships between the characters work very well as well. You get a real sense of love from the relationship between Paul and his daughter Maya (played by Raini Rodriguez) and the growing attraction between Paul and Amy (played by Jayma Mays) seems more believable than a lot of other movies – mainly because it doesn’t seem utterly ridiculous that she would be attracted to him because he is so nice!
There were some moments that had me laughing out loud, which is exactly what you want from a comedy movie, and surprisingly it didn’t have to reduce itself to the level of the gutter to get them. There is nothing in this movie that I would worry about my children from seeing or hearing, which says a lot as far as comedies go recently. And even when I wasn’t laughing out loud I was still being entertained and the running time just flew by.
As the movie shifts over into “action movie” territory it works just as well as the more comedic moments, and there are some wonderfully crafted moments as Blart sets about taking the criminals down and saving Amy and his friends.
I really was pleasantly surprised by this movie. I didn’t expect to enjoy it any where near as much as I did.
The Picture
While this doesn’t seem to have quite as good a transfer as some releases I’ve seen recently, it’s still pretty decent. The details in the picture, for the most part, are very high and there are only a few moments of softness to the picture that lets it down. The blacks are pretty good, with a fair level of detail and variance between the shadows, but there are some moments when the blacks do seem a little oversaturated and the colour palette isn’t quite as vibrant as it could have been.
The Audio
The audio is encoded in a Dolby TrueHD 5.1 Surround track and, while it doesn’t get a huge workout from the soundtrack, it’s still pretty punchy in places and the dialogue is always clear and easy to hear.
Special Features
The special features from the DVD release are also available on the Blu-Ray, with the only difference being that the featurettes are presented in HD. You get a commentary track with Kevin James and the Producer Todd Garner, eleven featurettes on the production of the movie (that clock in at a meaty 50 minutes in total!) and ten deleted scenes (the only part of the disc not presented in HD).
You also get the Blu-Ray exclusive “Cinechat” feature, where you can watch the movie with a chatroom open and a group of friends chatting away about the movie with you. I, unfortunately, couldn’t try this feature out for two reasons:
1) I had the movie over a week before it goes on release
and
2) I don’t know anyone who has a “Cinechat” account
But for those that do have a “Cinechat” account and a group of friends who own the movie will probably get some use out of the feature.
Overall, this is a very funny movie that is enjoyable for all. The overall presentation of the Blu-Ray is good, and the main feature is a great way to spend an hour and a half. Possibly one of the nicest and most enjoyable comedies I have seen all year.
3 Responses to “[Blu-Ray Review] PAUL BLART: MALL COP”
YAY!!!
Someone finally throwing some love PAUL BLART’s way! I thought this movie was actually kinda loveable – and the use of the Survivor song was all shades of ace!
Great review of an under-rated gem!
I was more of a Observe and Report guy, when it came to mall cop movies.
Also, where the **** have you been?
I dug Observe & Report too Grundy!
This was just such a fun watch!
I’m knee deep in post-production on the comedy pilot and snowed under with work which is making it extremely difficult to get time to sit down and watch a film, any film, let alone find the time to review it.
Doesn’t mean I’m not still casting a protective eye over my brother (Wyv) and sister (Kris)!
Miss writing on here sooooooooooo much. But time is non existant at the moment
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