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Observe and Report (2009)

Started by Pennywise, April 13, 2009, 03:23:02 PM

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Pennywise

I saw this today and it was a very dark comedy. This is a departure for Seth Rogen, who usually plays more likeable guys.

Ronnie Barnhardt (Seth Rogen) is the head of security at a mall. He keeps the peace at the mall and believes himself to be the authority there. When a flasher exposes himself to female shoppers in the parking lot, Ron sets out to catch the guy. He's quite a dedicated mall cop. He's also a racist, delusional, violent thug. Things get more complicated when the flasher comes back and exposes himself to the ditzy makeup counter girl, Brandi (Anna Faris).

An actual policeman is brought in, Detective Harrison (Ray Liotta), who tries to conduct an investigation when on top of a pervert flashing women the mall gets robbed after hours. Ronnie is galvanized now and applies to become a policeman. It doesn't work out obviously, since Ronnie stopped taking his medication recently, believing that his life was beginning to get better. When Ron decides to go undercover in the mall where everyone knows him to catch the pervert, things go awry, leading to a brutal confrontation with the actual police...

This is actually like a dark comedy version of Taxi Driver complete with a sinister ultimatum that Ron talks about in an internal monologue that could have been much more violent since we see Ron at a shooting range doing well at target practice early in the film. Instead it leads to a brutal conclusion after a startling amount of full frontal male nudity for a theatrical film near the end.

This film is bizarre and darkly hilarious.

HappyGilmore

I wanna see this, if anything, because it's supposed to be dark.  I love Seth, so I'm kinda glad to see him sorta stepping out of that 'box' he's in.  Kinda like what Jim Carrey did in '96 with The Cable Guy, which was a bit darker of a film for him.
"The path to Heaven runs through miles of clouded Hell."

Don't get too close, it's dark inside.
It's where my demons hide, it's where my demons hide.

Hammock Rider

Sounds like an interesting change of pace for Seth although I'm not necessarily looking forward to full frontal Rogen.(or...gasp..Liotta!)
Jumping Kings and Making Haste Ain't my Cup of Meat

Pennywise

It's someone else who goes full frontal in this film.