‘Observe and Report’ a Hilarious, Laugh-Out-Loud Variation of ‘Blart’, Anna Faris Brilliant

I've "observed" it, and now I'm "reporting". Observe and Report, the second movie from The Foot Fist Way writer/director Jody Hill, is, in three words, funny as hell. The cast is sure-fire, as well. Seth Rogen reminds us of Superbad's Officer Michaels and Anna Faris shows us a side of her that we've never seen before-and I like it. With a movie starring Rogen, you expect the regular Judd Apatow cast to tag along. But not in Report. With this one, he gets to try out his everyman type of comedy on people outside of his comfort zone. One of them, Ray Liotta. I must say, this really surprised me. Liotta hasn't been in any real live-action comedies before, so why now? Maybe because he wants to branch back out from doing stuff like SpongeBob Squarepants and Bee Movie to Field of Dreams and Hannibal again. Taking it all a bit too hard, I might say. Not my first choice to banter back-and-forth with Seth Rogen (although a great scene including the two is when they duke it out whilst Rogen puts the beat-down on some cops). Anna Faris is brilliant, too. You know her as the dumb broad from the Scary Movie series and The House Bunny. But Faris is beautiful and talented. She's not a dumb blonde; taking on this role is difficult. How can one portray an emotionally scarred, girl-next-door make-up sales clerk as great as Faris? She doesn't quite seem herself, but it's obvious that she is very comfortable doing this sort of thing. Come on out of the PG-13 shadow that 20^th Century Fox has you under and venture out into R-rated comedies, Anna. Compare her to Holly Madison and Denise Richards. This girl's got something going for her.

Meet Ronnie Barnhardt (Rogen), head of mall security at his local mall. After a flasher, who looks dangerously close to Michael Moore but isn't, strikes, he's on the case, accusing anyone who looks the least bit suspicious. When the situation takes a turn for the worse, the scene calls for a real police officer (Liotta). Ronnie doesn't like that, what's he doing wrong? Now he's got to catch the pervert before the police do, impress hottie Brandy (Faris), deal with his alcoholic mother (played by the talented Celia Weston)-all while being the underdog who wants to make it to the top. Jody Hill is quietly changing the face of comedy, forget Tina Fey! Hill captures the intense randomness and awkwardness that comes when trying to catch a criminal when nobody believes you have what it takes-and it's laugh out loud funny.

Observe and Report is nothing like Paul Blart: Mall Cop. I know it's constantly being compared to the Kevin James Happy Madison movie, but honestly, it's extremely different. Report has a fat cop, sure. So did Blart. Report has a sort-of love story. So did Blart. But did Kevin James drop the F bomb over 120 times, and flash mall-goers and we see EVERYTHING? Nope, count Blart out of that one. Knock up a point for Report. Paul Blart: Mall Cop was also a very happy-go-lucky flick. It had an obvious moral, but Observe and Report does not. Our dreams are not always appropriate for who we are. With the right motivation, even the most unlikely can succeed. But do we see a movie for the moral? No. We see a movie like Observe and Report or Paul Blart: Mall Cop to make us laugh. And as long as it gets the job done, I'm cool with it. And I have to say, Jody Hill passed with flying colors.

This is angry, offensive and explicit. Picture Pineapple Express with more sex and violence. Seth Rogen is hysterical, Anna Faris is awesome and Ray Liotta isn't as bad as I thought he'd be. Better than Paul Blart and funnier than Pineapple Express, and we didn't even have the regular Apatow gang that usually accompanies Rogen (we get a cameo from Danny McBride from The Foot Fist Way, however, and we're treated with small roles for Aziz Ansari, Patton Oswalt and Collette Wolfe, from Semi-Pro and Four Christmases). Prepare to tear up in laughter; Observe and Report definitely earns its place as one of my favorite movies so far of 2009.

4/5 stars.