Dir. Jody Hill
Writ. Jody Hill
Act. Seth Rogen, Anna Faris, Ray Liotta

Since when is someone with a bipolar condition funny? As soon as that was revealed about Seth Rogan's character in this one, I and my laugh-out-loud willingness checked out.

Now all I can describe "Observe and Report" as, is 'awkward.'

Bi-polar mall security guard Ronnie Barnhardt, played by Seth Rogan (Knocked Up), is called into action to stop a flasher from turning shopper's paradise into his personal peep show.

Barnhardt then goes for a shot at the brass ring, a spot in the local police academy, but his psychological condition prooves to be his enemy once again. In a Taxi Driver-fashion, Ronnie stalks a make-up gal named Brandi, who is so worthless, we don't even care he gets her.

I didn't laugh at a single moment in this film. From the start, Ronnie becomes one of those love to hate them type of characters who uses his job to feel like his life isn't a total waste. Truth is, Ronnie is a total social retard. There are millions of those walking around right now. I don't laugh at them either. They annoy the crap out of me. So did Ronnie.

There was only ONE character in this whole shit pile of a comedy-I shake my head as I write the word 'comedy'-being Nell, played by Collette Wolf, who develops a crush on Ronnie. For what reason, besides defending her honor to her Cinnabon-like manager, we have no clue.

Here's the deal. Ronnie should not have a gun. He is going to hurt somebody or himself. In fact, he does a couple of times. So, him getting into the Academy? We don't want that for him.

Brandi, played by Anna Farris (The House Bunny), is a piece of shit. We don't want Ronnie to have her either. So what the f**k do we want from this movie? It to end, that's what.

The movie fails as a comedy because in a situational comedy, the comedy stems from the response of the person in the situation. In this instance, the person in the situation was highly unstable and socially inept, especially once he went off his bipolar medication in Act Two.

The difference is THIS. A mall cop with narcolepsy (sp?) is funny, cause he's not going to hurt anyone with that disease and allows for some humorous situations. An overzealous mall cop with bipolar disease and a passion for shooting someone? There's nothing funny there. Why? Ronnie was a little too real for me.

Maybe if piece of sh*t director Jody Hill had Rogan play Ronnie with some sort of over-the-top character performance, I would accept the material a bit more. But since I believed Ronnie to be too close to truth, it wasn't funny at all. It borderlined scary.

Mr. Hill, I don't know what they taught you in film school, but you CANNOT make an homage to Taxi Driver and make it a comedy…unless it stars Rodney Dangerfield. And unfortunately he's dead, so "Observe and Report" should never have been made.

Skip this one. I really like Seth Rogan, so let's just say this one never happened. And as for Farris, she's on a run of bad movies now. Hopefully, she has better coming.

The one good thing about this film is, comparitively speaking, it makes "Paul Blart: Mall Cop" with Kevin James look like a masterpiece of comedic cinema. Good for you, Kevin. At least your crappy movie was still a comedy.

Benn - Where's the Humanity?