Paul Blart: Mall Cop

Since getting married, my wife and I have started a Christmas tradition that many people probably share. A few weeks before Christmas, my wife begins to politely reminding me to make a Christmas list. After hearing the reminder, over, and over, and over again, I finally break down and put my list together.

This year, in order to make things as easy as possible for would-be gift givers, I broke my list into categories indicating price. I broke down each category further by indicating what the article was and where to find it. For example, when I asked for the book “War Breaker” by Brandon Sanderson, I indicated that it was a book that could be found in the Fiction / Fantasy section of the bookstore.

While I thought I was making things easier, a few of the family members got a kick out of my typed up and categorized list and razzed me about it. Fortunately, despite the laughter, it came in very handy for those seeking a gift for me. It wound up being especially handy for the person that got me in our annual Secret Santa exchange among my in-laws.

On my list of items was a movie that I have been interested in seeing for some time. The movie, “Paul Blart: Mall Cop”, stars Kevin James. I’ve found him hysterical in his roles on the sitcom The King of Queens and the movie Hitch. I also found his stand up on Comedy Central “Sweat the Small Stuff” rather funny. When I saw that he was doing another movie portraying a mall security guard, I just had to see it.

The commercials advertising this movie made it seem like a riot to watch. My wife and I never did make it out to theaters to see it, so I popped it into the DVD player after our Christmas Day family visits were complete.

When it finished playing, I was happy to have seen it. The commercials made it out to be much funnier than it really was, showing the best stuff in the ads. I found that outside of the hysterical scenes showed on the commercial, there wasn’t a ton of funny stuff that got me laughing out loud at the television screen. If you haven’t seen it, I’d recommend checking it out on Netflix, On Demand, or by renting it at your local video store. While it was fun to watch, I don’t see the movie getting much repeat use in my home.

The story revolves around Paul Blart and his day to day role as a mall security guard. After eight failed attempts at becoming a State Trooper due to his hypoglycemia, he takes his role as hired security extremely seriously. After his mall comes under attack by thieves trying to steal credit card information, he takes on the job to save the hostages inside.

In the end, he thwarts the bad-guys and saves the day for the hostages, one of which is his young daughter and another his dream girl. The movie is peppered with mildly funny scenes of him taking on attackers one by one, in sort of Home Alone style scenes.