Observe and Report on Blu-ray/DVD September 22nd

Seth Rogen movies I have found to be very amusing:

The Forty-year old Virgin
Superbad
Knocked Up
Zack and Miri Make a Porno
Funny People

Seth Rogen movies I've found to be mildly amusing:

Pineapple Express

Seth Rogen movies that weren't funny at all:

Observe and Report

What's the difference between Seth Rogen as a slacker cop in Superbad vs. Seth Rogen as a hyper-vigilant mall cop in Observe and Report? My guess is that Seth Rogen is at his best in an ensemble cast rather than leading man. Even in Knocked Up, his role was balanced by a talented players such as Paul Rudd, Leslie Mann, Katherine Heigl, etc. In Observe and Report, the entire story centers around Rogen's delusional character--and unfortunately Rogen can't quite carry it off. (For a humorous take on Rogen the "actor," check out this satirical piece by my Facebook friend, Crystal Air Productions.)

It would hard for any actor to carry off the character of Ronnie Barnhart--a bipolar police wannabe with a drunken mother (Celia Weston), sycophantic co-worker (Michael Pena--slumming...) and obsession with slutty department store makeup artist (Anna Faris).

The film starts out promisingly with shots of "Forest Ridge Mall" really capturing the suburban mall culture. The opening seems to be reminiscent of Fast Times at Ridgemont High, but it quickly devolves into a disjointed series of scenes: Ronnie exercising his gung-ho authority, Ronnie patrolling the mall, flasher terrorizing females in the parking lot, a series of robberies in the mall, Ronnie pursuing the slutty Brandi, Ronnie trying to get into the police academy, blah blah blah.

I think I laughed once during the film.

Ronnie eventually captures the flasher (in the most gratuitous and shocking scene in the film), gets the girl (not the slutty Brandi, but sweet Nell played by Collette Wolfe, wife of writer/director Jody Hill, who ends up being the only sympathetic and likable character in the entire movie) and lives happily ever.

There's a lot of profanity, some violence and nudity--all of which separate this R-rated mall cop movie from the other mall cop movie. That OTHER mall cop movie made over $146 million domestically, however, while Observe and Report garnered only $24 million. The DVD, Blu-ray and digital download for Observe and Report available today contains no extras--no special features, outtakes, making of documentary. Just the feature.

Writer/director Jody Hill has earned kudos for his work as writer/director of Danny McBride vehicles Eastbound & Down and The Foot Fist Way. Maybe if McBride had played Ronnie Barnhart there would have been more than one laugh in Observe and Report.

The Green Hornet isn't supposed to be a comedy, is it?