Observe and Report 2009

Ben Lyons, At the Movies: You don't relate or enjoy watching Seth Rogen's character on screen. Read more

Michael Phillips, Chicago Tribune: [Director Jody] Hill can create only one sort of protagonist, and half the time he's stuck in a gray area between satirizing the firearms-obsessed, multidirectionally offensive Ronnie and embracing him. Read more

David Edelstein, New York Magazine/Vulture: Observe and Report is the rare 'action-comedy' (almost always a muddled hybrid) that earns its cathartic climax. The blood is real because the psychosis is real. But somehow -- the magic of comedy -- it's also uproarious. Read more

J. R. Jones, Chicago Reader: I've observed this Seth Rogen comedy, and I can report that it's not very good. Read more

Tom Keogh, Seattle Times: Here's hoping the talented Rogen, in the future, sifts out junk like this from the many opportunities before him. Read more

Scott Tobias, AV Club: Something of a cross between the formalist whimsy of Wes Anderson and the God's-lonely-man psychosis of Taxi Driver, the film breaks all the rules, but the tonal schizophrenia that results isn't an accident. Read more

Bill Goodykoontz, Arizona Republic: You have to respect Hill's willingness to continually go to any length without so much as a flinch to get a laugh. But that doesn't mean you'll continually enjoy it. Read more

Wesley Morris, Boston Globe: It's the strangest movie I expect to see from a Hollywood studio for the rest of the year. Read more

Betsy Sharkey, Los Angeles Times: There is no moral to this story, and there's not much comedy either. Read more

Amy Biancolli, Houston Chronicle: A few of the less repeatable lines hit their marks, but the whole affair has the pasty-faced desperation of shoppers trapped in fluorescent light. Read more

Peter Rainer, Christian Science Monitor: Observe and Report is a lot better when it's being funny than when it's rummaging in the shadows. Read more

Lisa Kennedy, Denver Post: Meet mall cop Paul Blart's evil, unfunny twin. Read more

Tom Long, Detroit News: Writer-director Jody Hill is obviously trying to accomplish something here. But just what is none too clear. Read more

Lisa Schwarzbaum, Entertainment Weekly: A crazy mosaic of Americana with tiles scattered and missing. Need I observe and report that the view isn't for every taste? It sure is for mine. Read more

Laremy Legel, Film.com: Observe and Report wants very desperately to be a dark comedy. But it doesn't quite get there, as it's not funny enough to hit the comedy dismount and not clever enough to go fully dark. Read more

Christy Lemire, Associated Press: A series of hit-and-miss non sequiturs in which his characters mostly humiliate and injure themselves and others. Read more

Amy Nicholson, I.E. Weekly: Soon, Rogen will muscle up into the role he really wants: Rambo. That explains the shoot-em-up climax of Pineapple Express, an unfunny joke now stretched out into a full flick Read more

Connie Ogle, Miami Herald: Observe and Report feels more like a series of not-quite-successful skits thrown together than a movie with a script. Read more

Rafer Guzman, Newsday: For better or worse, the weirdest, wildest comedy of the year so far. Read more

Stephen Whitty, Newark Star-Ledger: In the end, Observe and Report falls in the somewhat confusing middle -- guaranteed to annoy the mainstream while not quite delivering the final twist and bitter irony the true comic cultists crave. Read more

Joe Neumaier, New York Daily News: While it stops before sliding too far into the darkness, Observe and Report hits a lot of bull's-eyes by aiming for the gut, not easy belly laugh. Read more

Lou Lumenick, New York Post: I don't want to oversell it, but Observe and Report is the sort of offbeat studio movie that should be encouraged. Read more

Roger Moore, Orlando Sentinel: In its own demented Pineapple-Foot Fist-Four Letter Word Way, Observe and Report delivers a cynical, angry and funny take on a life of loud, violent desperation. Read more

Steven Rea, Philadelphia Inquirer: As funny as it is sick (and it's plenty of both). Read more

James Berardinelli, ReelViews: It falls short of brilliant but it's a lot more daring than what passes for 'dark comedy' these days, and it reminds us that 'feel bad' comedies may not always be as funny as 'feel good' ones but, when they work, they can ultimately be more satisfying. Read more

Peter Travers, Rolling Stone: Observe and Report revels in creeping you out and making you laugh -- hard. Read more

Stephanie Zacharek, Salon.com: The whole thing is calibrated to wow us with its weirdness, even as it assumes an air of 'Who, me?' guilelessness. I've seen slick, glossy Hollywood thrillers made with less knowing calculation. Read more

Mick LaSalle, San Francisco Chronicle: Observe and Report strikes me as a comedy in perfect pace with this moment. It's funny and uncompromising, offering laughs without denial. Read more

Dana Stevens, Slate: Observe and Report tickets should come with a free breath mint, because however hard you've been laughing, that ending leaves a seriously bad taste in your mouth. Read more

Colin Covert, Minneapolis Star Tribune: There won't be a more polarizing comedy released in 2009 than Observe and Report. This audacious, subversive action comedy turns two of our cuddliest performers, Seth Rogen and Anna Faris, into poster kids for atrocious misbehavior. Read more

Joe Williams, St. Louis Post-Dispatch: Observe and Report is the evil twin of Paul Blart, which had a soft heart but no nerve. This flick is almost criminally cynical, but delinquents will think there's something arresting about a movie whose mission is disturbing the peace. Read more

Liam Lacey, Globe and Mail: The tone of the film wavers queasily, though intentionally, between slapstick and shock. Read more

Peter Howell, Toronto Star: [Director] Hill evidently intends his film to be satirical. But satire requires intelligence to succeed. Observe and Report has a moronic sense of humour, trading in racism, sexism, profanity and violence at every predictable turn. Read more

Richard Corliss, TIME Magazine: Beyond the weirdness, if you can get there, is a quick portrait of trailer-park America pursuing its urges by any means necessary. Read more

Hank Sartin, Time Out: Read more

Joshua Rothkopf, Time Out: Read more

Tom Huddlestone, Time Out: Bracing, bleak and berserk, this is a film which laughs in the face of American intolerance, and comes up punch-drunk and grinning. Read more

Christopher Orr, The New Republic: [T]he upbeat ending--which comes on the heels of a genuinely shocking climax--is so incongruous that, as with The King of Comedy, it almost seems we're being dared to question whether it is real or delusion. Read more

Claudia Puig, USA Today: When Observe and Report is funny, it's often shockingly so. The characters can be nasty or self-absorbed, yet they still have a whiff of sweetness. Read more

Joe Leydon, Variety: With the invaluable aid of Rogen, who's never been better, Hill sustains an impressive degree of tension between seemingly contradictory elements. Read more

J. Hoberman, Village Voice: Ronnie the Mall Cop is as an iconic expression of irate proletarian populism and brainless role-playing as Joe the Plumber or Rush the Limbaugh -- identify or ignore at your peril. Read more

John Anderson, Washington Post: Given that the ordinarily likable Seth Rogen is portraying a delusional, violent, sexist, racist, homophobic mall cop with a bipolar disorder, there's not really a lot to laugh at. Read more