Paul Blart Mall Cop

With a heart that won't quit, a stomach that won't stop gurgling and a self-sworn oath to protect his turf, He's Paul Blart: Mall Cop. Mild mannered Paul Blart has always had huge dreams of becoming a State Trooper. Until then, he patrols the local mall as a security guard. With his closely cropped mustaches, personal transporter and gung ho attitude, only Blart seems to take his job seriously. All that changes when a team of thugs raids the mall and takes hostages. Untrained, unarmed and a super size target, Blart has to become a real cop to save the day.

Starring: Kevin James, Keir O'Donnell, Jayma Mays, Raini Rodriguez, Shirley Knight, Stephen Rannazziski, Peter Gerety, Bobby Canavale, Adam Ferrara etc.

Rating: PG

This is one of those stupid funny movies. You know, the one that you have to be in the right mood for or it isn't funny at all. Keeping that in mind it was, overall, a pretty funny movie.

Paul Blart is played by Kevin James. I really enjoy Kevin James as an actor and appreciate his sense of humour (most of the time). He kinda went a little over the top in portraying this guy, Paul Blart, as a bit of a loser but then I guess it just makes the ending all the more gratifying with the little guy coming out on top. It's fairly obvious right from the beginning that Paul Blart has not exactly had an easy time of it. His life seems to be a series of failures from which he tries to recover through food. He is a genuinely nice guy that just can't seem to get a break.

The basic premise of the movie is that we get to see Paul Blart go through a day on the job at the mall when a team of thieves take over the mall. Paul Blart manages to slip through the cracks and now he is the only one on the inside who can let the police know on the outside what's going on. He is determined to protect the hostages and stop the thieves.

I enjoyed this movie for a couple of reasons. One, you get to see the little guy finally get a break and come out on top and not in a completely unrealistic way. Okay, I know how many of us would be actually faced with that type of situation but think about when there is a tough situation to be dealt with. Most often, we rise to the occasion and do what needs to be done.

One of thing that stood out for me was the relationship Paul had with his daughter. She obviously thought the world of him and wanted him to meet someone that would be worthy of him. I also liked how self confident and strong this little girl was. When he tells her that she is a great daughter.. she responds... "yeah, I'm pretty great, aren't I?".

This movie is pretty tame rating wise as far as films go. The violence is fairly mild. Guns are used when the mall is taken over, brandished at customers. No one actually gets shot. There a few fight scenes and at one point Paul is attacked by a woman. As far as profanity goes, "hell" is used twice and "ass" is said a few times. The bad guys are not all that scary. But there is one scene, which could have been left out in my opinion, wherein Paul Blart gets drunk (inadvertently mind you but he was in a bar) and acts very stupidly.

So unless you are very strict with your children about what they watch, you may be tempted to ignore the rating because let's face many G rated cartoons are more violent than this movie. Personally though, I wouldn't suggest it as there is just not enough in this film to entertain young children. I couldn't imagine my kids being interested in this film at all.

For older children, at least 8 and up, this is a light enough comedy that the whole family can spend time watching.

Movie Mamma