James a riot as ‘Mall Cop’

“Paul Blart: Mall Cop” – 3.5 out of 5 stars

Ty Hampton
Critic’s Corner

Possibly the best physical comedian alive, Kevin James puts on a show in this hilarious family comedy.

Paul Blart (James) is a kind-hearted single dad and New Jersey Police Academy flunkey who takes a lot of pride in his job as Mall Security Officer. On top of that, Paul also takes extra care in protecting Amy, the nice new girl who works in the mall.

Near closing time on Black Friday, Paul takes a break at the arcade and is rockin’ out to “Detroit Rock City” on Guitar Hero. When the song finishes he finds that the mall has been taken captive by a gang of skateboarding, bmx-biking ninja thieves who intend on stealing all the credit card numbers from the big day’s transactions.

All civilians clear out the mall except for a group of employees who are taken hostage – including Amy – and Paul is the only man who can save the day. Equipped with only his brain, his mustache, his polar bear-like physique, and his handy Segway scooter – Blart takes on these kung-fu bandits to fight for the woman he loves.

Kevin James is truly a one-man show in this one. That’s not saying the supporting actors weren’t funny, it just means he stole the show and deserved to as he sunk everything into this from lead actor, to stuntman, to co-writing the script.

For his first real big screen lead role, James teamed up to co-write the movie with his buddy and the writer of his former hit show “King of Queens”, Nick Bakay. The outcome was the humor came naturally to the character and succeeding in getting a goofy laugh out of me almost every time.

And believe it or not, James did most of the stunts himself, flying through the air, slamming into walls, breaking through the windows – pretty impressive for the big guy. Plus it all plays into the larger joke of the movie which is kind of a play on Bruce Willis’ role in “Die Hard.” Except the criminals and James aren’t on an even playing field, because who knows the ins-and-outs of a mall more than security guard.

So what I’m saying is this movie is sort of “Die Hard” combined with “Home Alone” with Kevin James thrown in the mix. Genius, simply genius.

Plus there is something to be said about what the film’s production company, Adam Sandler’s Happy Madison, has been doing lately. Both this movie and Sandler’s “Bedtime Stories” (which actually was adopted by Disney of all people) are both family-friendly comedies that are really, truly funny for adults and kids alike while staying moderately appropriate.

And it’s about time somebody accomplished this outside of the animation realm – so with James as one of the newest members of Team Sandler, I look forward to what else they can cook up in the future.

I guess my only drawbacks from this movie were the plot went some ridiculous places, and the rest of the cast were almost complete nobodies. I mean, the next biggest actor to James was the guy who played the psycho brother in “Wedding Crashers” (Keir O’Donnell). What, they couldn’t have gotten a few more Happy Madison regulars to jump in there and give it a boost?

Overall when I saw this I was in a mood to laugh and this movie did that plenty. I give this one 3.5 out of 5 stars for the comedy genre.

The film is rated (PG) for some violence, mild suggestive humor, and some language. It is showing at the Ronan Entertainer Cinema at 4, 7, and 9:10 p.m. nightly.