Observe And Report

Friday 1st May 2009, 8:51AM BST.

You wait years for a film about the comical misadventures of a deluded shopping centre security guard, then two come along almost at the same time.

A little over a month after Kevin James’ tomfoolery as Paul Blart: Mall Cop, writer-director Jody Hill traverses similar territory in his eagerly awaited follow-up to the low budget mockumentary, The Foot Fist Way.

The similarities end there because Observe And Report is most definitely not a frothy romp for the entire family.

Humour here is very dark, so black in fact that it ceases to be funny and makes us squirm in our seats as the script pushes the boundaries of good taste to survey the shadowy nooks and crannies of the human condition.

Date rape, alcoholism, mental illness, xenophobia and drug abuse aren’t laughing matters but Hill evidently disagrees, constructing outlandish situations, which he readily admits were inspired by Taxi Driver.

The film certainly shows a different side to leading man Seth Rogen, who seizes the chance to portray a creepy and sinister anti-hero with limited success.

He plays mentally unstable security guard, Ronnie Barnhardt, who has always dreamed of wearing the police uniform.

Alas, Ronnie’s warped sense of reality contributes to a failure on the psychiatric evaluation, consigning the loner to a life as the dictatorial head of security at the Forest Ridge Mall.

When a flasher (Randy Gambill) terrorizes the female customers, Ronnie makes it his mission to track down the culprit and bring them to justice.

He assembles a crack team, comprising the other security guards – Dennis (Michael Pena) and the Yuen twins (Matt and John Yuan) – and Charles (Jesse Plemons), who works on the door of one of the mall restaurants.

Mall manager Mark (Dan Bakkedahl) calls in Detective Harrison (Ray Liotta) to catch the flasher, who quickly undermines Ronnie’s misplaced authority.

When the flasher targets wild makeup counter girl, Brandi (Anna Faris), the object of the security guard’s affections, the assignment suddenly becomes deeply personal for Ronnie, who already has his hands full with his alcoholic mother (Celia Weston).

Observe And Report will shock audiences who fell in love with Rogen for his turns as adorable loser in Pineapple Express and Zack & Miri Make A Porno.

There’s nothing remotely endearing about Ronnie, and we don’t feel sorry for him when he asks his drunken mother, ‘You think it was my fault Dad left?’ and she replies, ‘Definitely’.

Faris plays a cold-hearted bitch rather than her usual ditzy blonde and Weston scene-steals as the brutally honest, boozy momma with loose morals, who excitedly tells her boy that she wants to break the vicious cycle of wine and hangovers.

‘I’m ready to make a change,’ she smiles, ‘I’m switching to beer!’ A subplot involving a budding romance with Toast-A-Bun barista Nell (Colette Wolfe) is surplus to requirements.