Paul Blart: Mall Cop

PLOT:

At the New Jersey State Police training facility, new recruits are running through the obstacle course after already passing the written exam. Despite being overweight, Paul Blart completes almost the entire course in amazing time, but passes out at the very end from hypoglycemia before he crosses the finish line. During dinner with his mom and daughter, Maya, they try to cheer him up and want him to start dating again. Blart’s ex-wife had married him for the green card, had a daughter with him, and then abandoned them. He explains that because of Black Friday, he will be too busy, but they convince him to start a profile on Perfectmatch.com.

While on patrol at work riding his Segway PT, Blart passes by Amy’s kiosk and she gives him a smile which distracts him enough for him to run face-first into a display car. Back at base Blart watches her through the security footage, and then has to take the new guy, Veck Sims, out on another patrol to train him. Blart asks Veck why he pursued Mall Security.Veck replies that this was the only job he could get because he never finished high school. At the end of Blart’s shift, he gives Amy a ride back to her car. That night at the mall worker’s party, Blart and Leon have a nacho eating contest that Vijay judges. Blart accidentally eats a pepper and grabs a pitcher of margaritas, drinking most of it. Since Blart does not drink, he accidentally gets drunk and embarrasses himself in front of Amy.

During Thanksgiving dinner, Blart gets upset about what happened. He then goes back to perfectmatch.com and sees that he has “no matches”. Thinking that he has lost his chances with Amy, Maya cheers her father up.

On Black Friday Amy, Stuart, Leon and Veck are in the bank to cash their paychecks. Blart is heading there too but the owner of the video arcade asks him to help him close the store. When a gang breaks in through the service entrance and prepares to take over the mall by force (with Santa’s Helpers joining them), Blart is focused on playing Rock Band. The robbers clear the mall and take hostages in the bank. When Amy tells Veck to get down, he reveals that he is the ringleader of the gang. Veck plans to use credit card codes to steal $30 million, in order to fly to Cayman Islands, and to take the hostages with them.

After Blart finishes the game, the phone Vijay gave him rings, a guy named Pahud calls to speak to Vijay’s daughter, though Blart explains that her dad gave him the phone, and they become quick friends.

As Blart leaves the arcade, he notices the mall is empty, but tries to help a stray customer. When the customer turns out to be a gang member and attacks him, he calls the police. Police sergeant Howard instructs him to leave the mall immediately, but when he sees Amy’s car in the parking lot, he goes back in to save her and his friends. Subsequently, SWAT commander Kent takes control of the situation over Howard’s protests.

While Blart fights against the gang members (who use various forms of martial arts in an effort to dispatch him and appear to know parkour)through improvised measures (even at one point blowing up the kitchen of a Rainforest Cafe, Maya arrives to bring Paul his dinner, but when intercepted by the henchmen, claims she is late for her night shift at her job and she is immediately taken away to the rest of the hostages.

After Blart works his way through all of Veck’s underlings, he tries to extract the hostages, but they all fall down. Veck demands to have the credit card codes back. Afterwards, Blart is interrupted by Pahud, who calls Blart saying “Peanut Blart and Jelly! What what whats up man?” Blart hangs up while Pahud desperately tries to make sure Blart will call back, while Veck, Amy, and the other hostages stare at Blart like he has gone mad. Blart gives him the phone of Vijay’s daughter (Parisa) and tries to throw some of Leon’s hot sauce (called the “Devil’s Crotch”) on it, but fails when it accidentally hits Veck’s eye and Blart didn’t capitalize on the distraction. Then Veck escapes with the codes and holds Amy and Maya at gunpoint.

Blart steals the mall’s display minivan and chases after Veck with Commander Kent. Using GPS and Pahud’s help, they track Veck to an airstrip. Veck fights Blart, who fakes passing out to win. Blart cuffs Veck; Kent arrives to congratulate him, but pulling a gun on him, notifies him that he was working with Veck the whole time. Kent is about to kill Blart, but the chief of mall security shoots the gun out of his hand and Howard arrests him.

The next morning, Maya is proud of her father and Blart gives Amy a birthday card; Amy kisses him. Sergeant Howard offers Blart a job with the East Orange Police, but, with quick thinking, he decides that he should stay at the Mall with Amy and the rest of his friends.

During the end credits, bonus scenes show Blart and Amy getting married in the mall with Paul’s family and friends there, including Pahud.

REVIEW:

America first fell in love with Kevin James as The King of Queens. Since then, he has taken roles very similar and carved a niche out for himself. Paul Blart: Mall Cop is no exception.

James plays Paul Blart a down and out, overweight mall security guard who can’t seem to pass to the New Jersey trooper physical exam due to his hypoglycemia. Not to mention he lives with his mother and daughter because his wife used him to get a green card and then left them. Did I mention his crush on the new kiosk girl, Amy?

Speaking of Amy, Jayma Mays plays up the sweet side of someone who is the crushee, but doesn’t know exactly how to act. You can tell she cares, but at the same time is repulsed. I happen to think that she resembles Anna Faris at times.

Keir O’Donnell and Bobby Cannavale portray the double crossing villains in the family friendly comedy. Both men begin on the side of the law, only to make the switch all for money.

This is a really entertaining comedy. What really sticks out to me is that the audience actually likes and feels sorry for the hero. *GASP* These days it seems as if the hero has to be in that gray area or just a total douche. It’s nice to see one of the nice guys get what he wants and deserves. It sends a good message to the younger viewers that, despite what they may hear, nice guys don’t finish last. That message in itself should be enough to make you want to see this.

5 out of 5 stars

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