salmon62 This movie is painful to watch and I requested my money back.This movie is not a comedy! Not because It's not funny----but because its written as some sort of hybrid fairytale about violence and crude behavior without consequences, and sticking it to authority.This movie is terrible because Seth Rogen's style is to make everything unnecessarily profane to the point of irrelevancy. There is one painful exchange in the film between Rogen and (guess who . . .) Aziz Ansari who was the poster boy for anti-descrimination in Muslim/Arab comedy before his lifestyle caught up with him. The dialogue? A full minute of the two screaming "F you" at one another in a crowded mall. Funny? No, its Seth Rogen at his finest, bringing non-mainstream behavior into popular film. I think whats happened with Seth's crew, and you can name them on two hands, is that they find THEMSELVES very funny and think that you should also . . . Its pathetic "bro humor of the worst kind" and completely worthless as a comedic plot device.This movie takes pride in being inaccurate and unrepresentative of Police, Mall security people, shoppers, managers, everyone cast in this movie, and, since its not a comedy, there's no reason for the stupid characterizations of the cast. I love Anna Faris. Ray Liotta is awesome. But I can't understand why they accepted the roles in this film! Neither is funny or acts true to life. There's so much wrong with this film, mostly in its depiction of violence with zero consequences. There are actual shootings and beatings committed by Rogen's character in this film, as a civilian. He assaults a squad of police, shoots a misdemeanor flasher/streaker in a store full of people, drinks and uses drugs on the job, allows his co-worker to steal thousands of dollars on the job, commits rape while his love interest is passed out, and yet, no consequences!Yet ,he is given a security guard position back after committing numerous felonies! Is it a comedy? No, and it doesn't try to be funny, just in your face about what's right and what's wrong.In this movie, every conventional mainstream behavior is filtered through Seth Rogen's world.That world is disgusting, clueless, and overbearing.

palacerevolution2000 I love black comedy. I even like dumb movies. But this one thinks it is more than it is, ad therefore deserves a really low rating. It isn't funny in the least. There is not one likable character. Well I guess the coffee girl. But manly it's just a bunch of loud, misfires rolling by, one after another. No sense of reason in he story line. Take the Danny McBride series, the Sasha Cohen films, there is a story line, and one scene follows another for a reason. I couldn;t figure out what this was about. Ray Liotta's character?? Pena ? Who does Seth Rogen know in H'wood that he keeps getting all these films made? He is lame to the max. I did think it was funny that the flasher was very...small.

Paul Magne Haakonsen This is definitely not Seth Rogen's finest moment. And the movie was quite boring and not particularly funny. I didn't even laugh a single time throughout the entire movie.The story takes place in a mall; a mall that is troubled by a deviant flasher. It is up to the mall security to bring a halt to the flasher. Ronnie (played by Seth Rogen) dreams of becoming a police officer and sees the chance of solving the flasher case to be his stepping stone into the police academy.I will say that the jokes kind of fell short and didn't really bring home any punchlines. Truth be told, then I was laughing only when I watched the gag reel. And for a comedy, then it is really a killing blow that the movie itself fails to muster laughs from the audience.Not even Anna Faris or Ray Liotta could save this movie, despite the fact that Ray Liotta was the one with the most memorable performance in this entire movie. Collette Wolfe was also putting on a good performance, just a shame that she didn't have a bigger role."Observe and Report" is not a particularly good movie, and there are far better movies out there if you enjoy comedies.

Phil Hubbs At first glance an inevitable comparison to the Kevin James vehicle 'Paul Blart' springs to mind. To be fair you wouldn't be all that far off either, the whole basis for this film is very similar lets be honest. Both characters are working as security men in a mall and are wannabe cops. Both characters are portrayed as taking their job way too seriously when in reality they are merely shop attendants in a blue uniform. And both characters try to change their lives by applying for a job on the police force despite everyone thinking they haven't got a chance.So yeah its pretty similar, the only major difference is the fact Rogen's character in this film is more unhinged and eerily prone to violent anger outbursts. This of course can be hilarious at times with Rogen's great comic personality and chubby features, but at the same time its also a bit disturbing and uncomfortable too.There are plenty of scenes in this which made me laugh out loud, the way Ronnie (Rogen) organises his small team of security men with the up most importance, as if they were special ops. His awkwardness around sexy perfume saleswoman Brandi (Farris perfectly cast as your typical airhead blonde...again), the way he acts with jealousy around real cop 'Harrison' (Liotta), his ongoing feud with Arab shopkeeper Saddamn and the way he exposes himself as slightly deranged, depressive and possibly dangerous to various people, especially in the police psychological examination.On the flip side there are times when the film feels ugly vicious a bit sad and over the top with the violence, profanity and blood. The sequence where Rogen's character takes Brandi out for a meal, she gets drunk and then they end up having sex, is rather dubious. Why? because Brandi is completely out of it and vomiting whilst Ronnie is banging her. It does seem a tad like rape, but at the same time the sight of Farris' head lurching to one side with puke on the pillow whilst Ronnie goes at it is amusing I can't deny, a nervous laugh there.There are other moments throughout which seem to go a bit too far also, showing 'Ronnie's' anger, the fight with the cops and Liotta's character, and the finale for the flasher. Its all kinda funny but kinda edgy too, at times you're thinking is it OK to laugh at this?Saying this is a dark comedy is an understatement, its darkly dark alright and Rogen's cynical, sinister, in your face performance will either leave you laughing, cogitating or hating. I think I prefer this over the Kevin James film simply because Rogen's performance is appealing to me here plus this film is more grounded ('Blart' goes down that 'Die Hard' route). The ending is a bit simple and anti climatic but its a totally fun and rather controversial ride to get there.6/10