User reviews

I can easily understand why many people were turned off by this film, Its easily one of the darkest comedies i've ever seen. There is some brutal violence, use of heroin and even essentially a date rape. But perhaps the darkest element of the story is Ronnie (Seth Rogen). The character is so twisted but fear not people this movie IS funny and sometimes extremely. If you have seen Jody Hill's other works, The Foot Fist Way and Eastbound and Down, and think they're funny then I can almost assure this humor will be right up your alley. But for those who are not fans of dark comedy you may hate it, it all depends on your taste. While it may lack originality in its plot it also has a side of Seth Rogen we haven't seen before, a more deep, layered character, that shows he may have the ability to do more dramatic work. I gave the film a 7 out of 10 because of Seth Rogen's performance with a few noteworthy comedic shines from Anna Faris but most of all for the intelligent and hilarious dark humor the film contains. On the con side however the plot was very similar to Paul Blart.

To be honest I quite enjoyed this film, OK its not a laugh out loud all the time comedy but it does have its moments. Sometimes it comes across as a serious film and its gets confusing as to what sort of route its taking. I think the viewer needs to sit down, relax and watch it with an open mind, that way you will find yourself enjoying it. The premise of the film is basically about a Naive Mall Cop (Seth Rogan) who suffers from Bi-Polar, his aim in life is to become a Police officer, without going into too much detail and spoiling it, he sets his target of finding a Flasher that is terrorising customers of the Mall to prove to an investigating police officer (Ray Liotta) he is capable of doing his job. Along the way he tries to win the heart of a Make-up Clerk (Anna Faris) with miserable consequences. All in all, many films I have seen recently I have switched off halfway through, not interested in seeing what happens in the end, this I watched to the end. I thought the ending was good, can't see what other people thought was so bad about it, yes it was a bit harsh, but all was OK. Sorry about the review being a bit short on the info part, but did not want to reveal too much about it.

An anonymous flasher exposes himself to shoppers in the Forest Ridge Mall parking lot. The head of mall security, Ronnie Barnhardt (Seth Rogen), makes it his mission to catch the flasher. He is helped by Charles (Jesse Plemons), Dennis (Michael Pena), and the Yuen twins (John Yuan and Matthew Yuan). Ronnie's dream girl, Brandi (Anna Faris) is flashed the next day, and she becomes hysterical. Detective Harrison (Ray Liotta) comes and takes over the situation, this makes Ronnie very angry. Ronnie decides to take the case into his own hands.

A incredibly disgusting film where Seth Rogen is at his funniest, but a great performance by Rogen cannot save this crude film. Observe and Report is a very dark and unpleasant experience. A cliché thing to say, but I found myself looking at the clock waiting for this film to end. Besides for Rogen Observe and Report has very few laughs. The perfect example of why you can't base and entire films laughs on dirty humor. Some of the most unfortunate, and unwanted nudity I have even had to sit through. Jody Hill tries to shock and awe viewers will dark humor, and a unique storyline, but instead creates and unfortunate film. The most surprising thing about this film is that even while the film is very tough to sit through, Rogen's performance still almost carries the film.

Jody Hill is the co-creator and executive producer of the HBO series Eastbound and Down. Eastbount and Down has dark humor and a very outrageous plot as like Observe and Report, but Observe and Report is not able to link together as well. Hill's first film The Foot Fist Way was seen by Adam McKay and Will Ferrell who bought the distribution rights. And also developed a cult following. Hill was allowed on the set of Knocked Up, and he fell in love with Seth Rogen's acting style. He became even more of a Rogen fan after the release of Superbad. Hill both directed and wrote the script for Observe and Report. Unfortunately it just didn't have as great of an effect as his previous work. Observe and Report's script is very poorly made. Hill's direction is well done, but the film is an absolute mess.

Seth Rogen's performance is one of the best and hilarious performances from a comedy since probably Steve Carell's in 40 Year Old Virgin. Besides for Rogen there are no other performances worth mentioning. Anna Faris as Brandi is a very untalented performance. Ray Liotta as Detective Harrison is nothing special, no lines or scenes worth mentioning. One performance does not keep a film in motion. Each time Rogen is off the screen this film just crashes and burns.

Observe and Report only grossed about 25 million in the box office, one of the lowest grossing films that Rogen has stared in. This film had plenty of hype. Rogen as the lead, the co-creator of Eastbound and Down as the director, and also starring Ray Liotta. But like so many comedy films, it disappointed. It seems like each year there are more and more gross- out comedies that are released. Hopefully this film will help people realize that these films very rarely work, but probably not. The amount of awful nudity in this film will make you have to check and make sure you are not at a Jackass film. Observe and Report is a film you need to brace yourself to sit through. A film Rogen fans will want to pass on, and if you are a Jody Hill fan you too will be disappointed.

It had a few laughs and a few more chuckles.

The film was VERY character driven, unfortunately none of the characters were really developed, so it was difficult trying to cheer them on or even dislike them. You don't know if the person is retarded or just trying to be funny or what...really bad script.

It was pretty disappointing in my opinion. I'm very open minded about films and try anything and often have been pleasantly surprised, this film was an unpleasant surprise.

The film was very mixed up, Rogan's monologue at the end of the film needed to be in the beginning of the film to establish who/what he was. A few funny moments by the side characters but that's about it for this film.

Not a fun experience at the movies. Avoid this film and be glad you didn't waste your time.

IMHO

Meet Ronnie Barnhardt(Seth Rogen),beefy,twenty-something,working at a mall in suburban California(?) as a security guard--well,by his account CHIEF security guard--and he takes it VERY seriously and personally when a flasher terrorizes female patrons,then coincided with a burglary. When afore-mentioned perv flashes the sexy shallow make-up counter girl Brandi(Anna Faris,shedding any reserve here,if she ever had any),Ronnie goes from "heading up" the investigation to making it some sort of personal mission,a Quixotic endeavor to augment his dual sense of duty and an empty but destiny-bound personal life.

I have yet to see either writer/director Jody Hill's first film,Foot Fist Way,or his HBO series "Eastbound and Down",but his sophomore effort had heightened my curiosity. In this film,Hill presents Ronnie as somewhat of a contradiction: a near-fascistic believer in law and order whose sense of creating that order is something out of a violent,sadistic nihilistic nightmare/fantasy,peppered with quasi-racist and thick-headed assumptions,all the while he's holding fast to his dreams while setting brave face against the very real facts(that he's become almost blissfully oblivious to)of his bi-polar disorder,the fact that he's generally mocked or not taken seriously by most anyone outside of his close group of friends(including but not limited to the same Police department he so longs to join) and that his heavy-drinking mother(Celia Weston,fantastic in what could be considered a strictly ancillary role)seems as oblivious to his problems as he is to his own.

This is another movie that seems to garner a lot of "10"s,"9"s,"8"s,"3"s,"2"s or "1"s;in other words,not much middle ground of opinion. I certainly CANNOT deem this to be anywhere close to terrible,since I laughed quite a bit at this. But this film is also unbalanced enough to be unnerving and even discouraging at times. So I'm left with saying that I came away feeling like it's certainly good enough for quoting,just not quite good enough for full recommendation. Most everyone in this film's probably done better work(Ray Liotta's part is maybe a few scenes shy of being disposable),but this,to me,cannot be considered their worst. Some of the actors,particularly Michael Pena(as the lisping security peer of Ronnie's) and Collette Watkins(as the sweet Cinabon girl who gives Ronnie his daily free coffee)have me even intrigued to see them in other stuff. I know it's been said before,but this really is sort of a distaff,dark cousin to the much more sincere but perhaps too sugary Paul Blart:Mall Cop,and while it does parallel Taxi Driver,it kinda drops the dark,fatalistic intensity at the conclusion reaching a conclusion that may puzzle or dissatisfy some,but still basically fits the overall spirit of the movie.

To say this film is probably for discerning and specific audiences is probably a (big)understatement,but it's still oh-so-true. To recommend this movie,you better know that someone pretty well,because Observe and Report is the kind of movie that rambles,six-guns a-blazing,blasting the viewer with its own brand of dark humor and skewed philospohy. A good,sick comedy/drama,but viewer be forewarned.

For some reason, this movie seems to be forgotten to Seth's other movies, and I can't understand why (or maybe I just have a thing for dark humor). At the same time, I understand it's not the type of movie everyone will like. Doesn't change my rating, though.

The most surprising movie of the year and, if not for a completely absurd ending, one of the best. Congratulations to director Jody Hill, someone I will now be keeping a definite eye on, for taking such great risks, for pushing boundaries and for breaking free of typical film conventions. It has been a long time since a movie made me squirm so much in my seat, wondering where each scene was going. Unpredictable, unnerving, intelligent. Drug use, date rape, racism, gun control, mall mentality, and homophobia are just some of the issues dealt with here in sly and creative ways. There is an edge to Seth Rogen as an actor and I'm glad it's finally starting to show. His performance will definitely turn some people against him, more than not actually. He plays Ronnie Barnhardt and he is not the type of character you think he will be. There are very few so called comedies with a lead character this complex. For the most part he is not even very likable. He is disturbed, troubled, bi-polar, dangerous -- an all too realistic character (we know people like this and the razor's edge they walk) -- with life already defeating him without his awareness or consent. He lives at home with his alcoholic mother, his father left him as a child. His soul is beaten; everything is working against him, there is no way out and the audience knows this although Ronnie does not. He pushes on, looking to make sense of the world around him. He wants a girlfriend; he wants order in the chaos around him; he wants to achieve his dream job as a police officer. But really he wants acceptance and purpose -- the definition of an ideal life -- both of which elude him. There is not a step he takes in the direction you assume he would. This, however unlikely, is a great character study. Unfortunately, in order to make money, the studio has decided to pitch this as a comedy. Although there are humorous moments, this is not, I repeat, not a comedy. This is a tough commentary on seeking one's place in the world when everything is falling apart, the desperate yearning to belong (and because he doesn't, because he is an outcast, he despises it all). It is a blend of Taxi Driver and Punch Drunk Love with shades of Oldboy, Cable Guy, and The King of Comedy thrown in. All of which makes the ending absolutely ridiculous. And it's not what Ronnie does that is out of place. It is how everyone else reacts to his final act. I am almost positive that this ending was not written in the script. As the director had only one very small film under his belt (The Foot Fist Way) I am sure he was forced to deliver a happy ending and that was why he made it so delirious and ludicrous that I kept assuming it must be a dream. I pray for a DVD with an original ending included. But overall, what a surprise. Films do not have to be either a comedy or a drama, the characters don't always have to be likable, and it is a delight to be thrown curve after curve for once instead of formulaic drivel -- the mindless entertainment we are all told we should enjoy (ironically, many seeking that in this film we be delivered a brutal wake up call). Just adjust your expectations going in. One scene summed the movie up best for me: While listening in on a conversation, a cop comes out from hiding behind a door and says, "I thought it was going to be funny, but it's just kinda sad." Exactly.

How Jody Hill's second feature film, Observe and Report, got made at all is something of an insane miracle let alone by a major studio by Warner brothers. Perhaps it was all thanks to Seth Rogen, who recently acted with Hill's main guy Danny McBride in Pineapple Express, who got it green-lit. Because, frankly, this is such a ballsy and weird "comedy" that rests in a nether-region of Paul Blart: Mall Cop, One Hour Photo, and any given Seth Rogen vehicle comedy. It's in simplest terms about a mall cop (or "head of security") who is bi-polar, thinking he's on track to become an actual police officer, trying to track down a flasher who keeps exposing his privates to any women in sight, and quickly goes even MORE bug-f*** crazy when he forgets to take his pills. It's one of the oddest birds in cinema of the year.

And I can't say I exactly "enjoyed" myself, at least in the same way I did with previous Seth Rogen vehicles. This isn't Knocked Up or Zack and Miri Make a Porno where Rogen was this likable guy that the supposed schleps in the audience could identify with him in situations. Ronnie Bernhardt is the kind of guy who if he wasn't a screw-loose might almost be a kind of enthusiastic bad-ass. But as he is he is pushy, off-putting, obscene, at one point an arguable date raper, and is obsessed with using guns over his mace and tazer. He has a drunk mom, one of those almost conventional female things going on where he's "macking" on the ditsy cosmetics girl (Anna Faris) while the happy but tortured-for-her-broken-ankle girl working behind the bakery (Collette Wolf) that gets really bizarre, and a final thirty minutes that... I'll just leave it as it is here.

Suffice to say it's actually brave for Rogen to take on this character and not make us like him, at all, in the slightest. He may even have helped with some of the ad-libbing (one of the funniest scenes is between himself and a brown-skinned individual with a constant "F-you" back-and-forth where the pitch of their two-word insults get lower and lower), and if nothing else he is quite watchable in the role of Ronnie. What works against the movie is that it usually doesn't know what it exactly wants to be, and the director's ambitions get ahead of him. It's a comedy but at the least as dark as a black hole, and as a drama about a psychotic on the edge it gets too crude and obvious with white trash bits. It has a similar level of awkward tension fused with a sense of humor that is meant to illicit laughs from the protagonist's chutzpah and go-for-broke quality like Hill's The Foot Fist Way, maybe its only real link.

To be fair, I wasn't the biggest fan of that film, even as I can understand its appeal as a cult favorite. Maybe Observe and Report will get that too. I was astonished at times where the film went to with taking its character's exploits to a dangerous but somewhat logical conclusion. Other times I did indeed laugh a good deal, either from a moment of real randomness (I did like the joke on the twin Asian guards, "You're my infantry, if I lose one, God gives me another"). I can't say I exactly liked the movie a good deal, but I do respect it. It will split an audience as to what the hell it even is, or if it's as funny as it might be or if it follows its Taxi Driver roots to full-tilt. It's a true-blue curio, and I wouldn't either recommend it or tell you it's comedy poison.

I had never heard of Seth Rogan before I saw this film and had to look up his credits on IMDb. This movie is a real black comedy like Doctor Strangelove and The 'burbs only not as good. I basically liked it but its a one time viewing for me and its sort of a movie I'm ashamed to admit I like. For one thing, I am amazed at the number of "F bombs" that are dropped in this 86 minute film. There is one scene where Rogan and another actor literally say nothing but *%$# you back and forth for almost a minute! I think the screenwriter could have been a little more imaginative. Some people have mentioned being offended, and I want to as well, about the scene where Rogan and that mall girl whose a flooze go out on a date and she gets drunk and stupidly takes his bipolar medicine. The next scene shows him literally raping her while shes out. That crossed the line in every aspect and I found that scene totally loathsome. I think that is the best word to describe Rogan's character. You laugh at him because he is such a pathetic loser with delusions of grandeur. I don't know why that sweet girl who worked in the coffee shop (she gives a great performance by the way)saw anything in this pig of a man. There is one scene where he tries to join the police force and delivers this bizarre rambling monologue to the shrink interviewing him. Your laughing, but also thinking my God don't let this man carry a loaded weapon. Rogan also has another hilarious monologue where he speaks of catching the mall flasher in the reverent tones and words of a warrior going off to the Holy Crusades. A basically nice way to waste 86 minutes of your life, but this is one strange film. I wanted to mention that Ray Liotta gave a fine performance as the straight laced cop driven crazy by this lunatic.

Everyone who dislikes this film falls into 1 of 2 categories: 1. They don't like comedy films in general (I have a met quite a few who fall in here). 2. They have giant tampons in their asses that is crushing their common sense organ.

I was under the impression when I came to this board that this film would be another "Sex Drive" with nothing but lame jokes and even lamer characters and acting.

I simply can't describe how amazing this film is. Just go see it and have good time. I guarantee you that you'll feel so better about you're life too once you watch this. It does what a comedy is suppose to do, make you laugh and bring a feeling of joy to your soul box.

Observe and Report. No, it is not a ripoff of Paul Blart: Mall Cop, lets get that out of the way right now. This movie has been troubled since the very beginning and has been disowned by critics for being too dark to be funny. Dark? Yes, this movie has its share of politically incorrect humor and gratuitous violence played up for laughs. But to call it not funny…. I simply cannot fathom why anyone did. This movie is a laugh-out-loud spectacle. Its almost as good in the way that Bad Santa was good. Seth Rogen even plays his character akin to Robert DeNiro as Travis Bickle in Taxi Driver (minus the Oscar worthiness and anything that made Travis Bickle a classic character of course, I'm not equating Rogen to DeNiro). The rest of the cast exemplified terrific comedic timing, especially Ray Liotta. If your looking for laughs, this movie is up your ally. Its in the same league as Kick-Ass and Bad Santa for sure. As for the critics… well… prior to the film's release, the stock market crashed. I blame the economy for this one. Times are a little bit better, and so is this movie. Give it a watch.

If you enjoy Seth Rogan, Jonah Hill nonsense this is the perfect movie for you. It's not great by any standard, but absolutely is entertaining.