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Better than Blart and Dirtier Than Harry.***
Flashing among other stuff, a fiendish humor with a
vengeance from the starting gate with mind blowing humor
that is no laughing matter, Observe And Report is distinguished
if for nothing else, than sheer innovative and delightfully
nervy comic sensibility. Boasting a psycho superhero in
this extreme character makeover for an adventurous Seth
Rogen, the movie is also daring for Hollywood's bid - likely
a result of ongoing economic crisis box office blues - to
hedge bets by radically releasing an inner depraved indie
soul.***
Rogen is Ronnie Barnhardt, a butt kicking head cop at
a burb mall, with thwarted aspirations to big time dreams
(for him) as a real policeman. That is, save for his history
of bipolar disorder and various restraining orders taken
out against him by other employees there. When a hit and
run guerrilla flasher in nothing but a raincoat and sneakers
starts terrorizing the mall, Barnhardt seizes the opportunity
to turn covert vigilante, collar the suspect and impress
the local precinct enough to finally earn a badge.***
In no way a conventional vigilante, Barnhardt isn't
motivated by the lack of police enthusiasm around him. He's
rather furious about the involvement of Detective Harrison
(Ray Liotta) as an interloper perceived as precipitating
a competing turf war necessitating vigilante action.***
This mall, or rather maul cop, when not beating up
surfer kids in the parking lot with their own skateboards,
is also out to impress the ditzy girl gone wild makeup counter
hottie Brandi (Anna Faris) with his macho approach to crimefighting.
But Brandi, a less Knocked Up than knocked out boozer, who
is fond of calling barmaids 'nurse' while downing endless
rounds, is only interested in the smitten cop for his stash
of prescribed psychotropic meds she recycles as aphrodisiacs.
Observe And Report lets it all hang out, so to speak, as
that elusive flasher keeps Barnhardt in frantic chase mode
for the duration. And the wicked humor never lets up, as
the tone deliciously darkens along the way, just when you
thought there was nowhere further demented left to go.***
{Blu-ray}- (Image & Sound)- (Taylor Carlson)
Being a comedy I didn't expect a whole lot of out of
Observe and Report's Blu-Ray transfer. Boy, was I wrong.
The movie looks VERY good in 1080p. Detail is strong, flesh
tones never feel too reddish or artificial, and the movie
definitely doesn't feel overprocessed. Audio is solid as
well, making dialogue and various other movie sounds as
clear and audible as can be. Ultimately, the movie looks
and sounds far better than this reviewer would expect a
comedy to be presented.
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