“Observe and Report”

Rating: 8/10

There’s a point in writer/director Jody Hill’s “Observe and Report” where a flasher, tucking his birthday suit beneath a brownish trench coat, runs afoul of every nook, cranny, corner and crevice of the Forest Ridge Mall. This scene of extended full-frontal nudity, of course, causes the audience to revolt in disgust, as tends to be the standard for today’s run-of-the-mill gross-out comedies. But what separates this one from the rest is, surprisingly, heart.

Yes, heart.

Security guard Ronnie Barnhardt (Seth Rogen) lives a lifestyle typical of those in his line of work. He brings honor to his duty, looks good in uniform and cares deeply about those around him. He wears both his badge and calculator wristwatch with poise and dignity. He reluctantly accepts the free coffee given to him on a daily basis by love interest and self-proclaimed born-again virgin Nell (Collette Wolfe). But at the end of the day, he’s just another Average Joe taking refuge on his mother’s couch, sweating the small stuff and dreaming big.

After a pervert rears his ugly head in the mall’s parking lot, exposing himself to female customers and employees, Barnhardt springs into action. His attempts to crack the case are stopped cold by hot shot Detective Harrison (Ray Liotta), whose tough-as-nails demeanor annoys Ronnie, while at the same time inspires him to become a “real” police officer. Physically, he’s got it.

Mentally, though, is where the red flags raise, for it is his sky-high ambitions and bipolarity that cause him to fail the psych evaluation and, eventually, get booted from his everyday beat at Forest Ridge.

Depressed and his career circling the drain, he returns to the mall to talk with his friends, walk his old post and even finally pay for that cup of coffee. What happens from there is among the most unpredictable, hilarious moments in the entire film. Not giving too much away, Ronnie finally comes face-to-face with the flasher who has tormented him and his cohorts in one most unforgettable, visually arresting climax.

“Observe and Report” is, at its core, a ripe, if offbeat, comedy that dares to be daring. But when the cuffs come off —— namely, in a few of the latter scenes between Rogen and Wolfe —— it dares to be so much more and succeeds mightily.

Ronnie, pigheaded as he is, has a human element about him that helps separate this movie from not only that other mall cop comedy but much the rest of the genre. Thematically, it’s about knowing what you want and appreciating what you have while you have it, as Barnhardt demonstrates multiple times throughout.

Greater than a cog in the security guard machine, don’t you dare call him a mall cop; that’d be “Mr. Mall Cop” to you.